Pedro de Heredia

Pedro de Heredia (Madrid, 1484 - January 27, 1554), Adelantado, Spanish conqueror, founder of the city of Cartagena de Indias, first governor of the city and explorer of the coast and from the interior of present-day Colombia to Antioquia and north of Tolima.

Biography

From a noble family, in his youth Pedro de Heredia was locked in a fight against some contenders, from which he left badly injured in the nose, this was fixed by a famous court doctor, but Heredia, in revenge, killed all his attackers and had to flee to the Indies to evade the justice that claimed him. He settled in Santo Domingo and dedicated himself to agricultural work. From there he went to Santa Marta, in Tierra Firme, as lieutenant of Governor Pedro Badillo, where he became rich by exchanging trinkets with the Indians (bells, mirrors, red caps) for gold.

He took his wealth to Spain and capitulated in court the conquest and population of the coast of Tierra Firme, from the mouth of the Magdalena to the Atrato River. The capitulations were signed on June 5, 1532, in Tordesillas, by Queen Isabella of Portugal, in the absence of her husband, her King. According to a letter written by Pedro de Heredia himself in April 1533 and addressed to King Carlos V, Heredia arrived as Governor in Cartagena on January 14, 1533. That same letter helped to clarify the controversial date over time. foundation of Cartagena de Indias, misunderstood from the texts of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo as January 20, 1533, the day of San Sebastián, but which, as proven by the Academy of History of Cartagena de Indias, was on June 1, 1533, since Heredia himself announced it in April of that year from Zamba, when the rainy season began and he returned to Calamarí or Calamar, the first town he found in January 1533. Heredia arrived accompanied from the Indian Catalina, a native of Zamba, a population of the Mokaná ethnic group, from where she was kidnapped and taken to Santo Domingo where she became a ladino or an expert in Spanish and the Catholic religion, as they have affirmed since the XVI chroniclers and compilers.

The Calamari Indians decide to ambush the invaders. At the site where Calamarí was located, Heredia noted the lack of water, aridity, and sparse vegetation. Corinche told Heredia that in the Yurbaco area (see Turbaco) there was water, and more temperate climates. Marching towards Yurbaco, Heredia crossed all sorts of undergrowth. And upon reaching Yurbaco, he was received by a group of Indians prepared to attack him. Corinche disappeared, and in that battle in Yurbaco, he was unharmed. Having almost annihilated the natives in that battle, he returned to Calamarí, and that first of June, 1533, he knocked down the chief's hut, and drove a stake with a sign that read "San Sebastián de Calamar", as reminder of the first day they arrived in the area, and the Calamari Indians who inhabited it. By the end of 1533, everyone was in agreement with Juan de la Cosa, for the city to be renamed, and in effect it was changed to Cartagena de Indias.

From Heredia he built the first buildings, sending with the chaplain who was in his fleet a request to the House of Hiring to send monks, masons, and other supplies to build the city. The town that de Heredia developed at the beginning was made of wood, and was always at risk of fire (one of them would consume half of the town in 1535, almost ending the existence of the city). But by the middle of that year the first provisions from Spain began to arrive, which allowed de Heredia to enter the swamps of Manga, Bocagrande, Manzanillo and the Crespo area, until he discovered the Ciénaga de Tesca (De la Virgen). Having made a path through the Bocagrande reservoir, the first settlers had access to Tierrabomba stone, quite light but solid for construction.

With the city underway, de Heredia proceeds to explore the areas surrounding the Bay of Cartagena de Indias; First, he took care of securing the city's quarry, Tierra Bomba Island, and reached an agreement with the Carex Indians, who inhabited that area. Later, he went to the eastern coast of the Outer Bay, where the Cospique tribe was, with which he also had an understanding. Finally, he explored the Barú Peninsula, where he met the Bahaire, with whom he did not have such a fluid relationship, but was able to avoid conflicts.

Catalina recommended that de Heredia not go too far into the jungle, due to the dangers that this entailed. De Heredia obeyed his companion and dedicated himself to exploring the Zenú territory by sea, including the areas of Labarcé, Golfo de Morrosquillo, Bahía de Cispatá, Arboletes, Golfo de Urabá and Puerto Obaldía, finishing exploring the Colombian Caribbean coast. Even so, in 1536, he authorized his bold brother, Alonso de Heredia, to explore the Southeast and South of the new Province of Cartagena. He began to explore the jungles and savannahs, although there is no data about his exploration. Even so, it seems that he founded Santa Cruz de Mompox in late 1537 and Santiago de Tolú in 1535. Alonso de Heredia returned immediately to Cartagena after making his last expedition, but in 1540, he was seriously ill, which delayed exploration by land. of the interior areas.

In the ceremonial center of Finzenú, governed by a cacica, Heredia was absorbed to see how they buried the dead with their goods and a funerary temple adorned with large wooden statues, covered in gold, placed one in front of the other and of which hung hammocks, where the natives placed offerings to the gods. Heredia looted the tombs and extracted enormous amounts of gold for many years, so much so that it gave rise to a saying among the Indians that said: "unfortunate the Pirú [Peru], if Sinú is discovered [first]" . Heredia made many raids personally and through others, committing all kinds of atrocities. The Bishop of Cartagena, Fray Tomás del Toro, accused him before the Council of the Indies, which sent Governor Juan de Badillo to put him on trial for residency. This was Heredia's partner and was unhappy with him, so he imprisoned him with Alonso, his brother, but the Heredias paid bail with the gold they had brought from Antioquia. Pedro de Heredia traveled to Spain, where he was acquitted, and returned with the title of Adelantado.

He continued in his conquering incursions until the French pirate Roberto Baal assaulted Cartagena de Indias, and Heredia had to pay two thousand gold pesos, through the bishop, which accelerated his second residence trial. Dr. Juan de Maldonado, appointed prosecutor of the Royal Court, was sent from Spain to take up his residence due to the many accusations against him, for the abuses committed during his government. Maldonado raised 289 chapters for different charges, among which are contraventions of the law, appropriation of funds that entered the Royal Treasury due to Chamber penalties, shipment of gold without harvesting outside the country, nepotism in the granting of positions and encomiendas, hindering the deliberations of the council, and mistreatment of Indians and caciques for having beaten and burned them alive. On this last charge, he was also accused of harsh treatment of Indians and encomiendas of towns of your Highness, great excesses of deaths and cutting of lips and ears and breasts . The process extended from 1553 to 1555, when he was found guilty, depriving him, therefore, of the governorship. Heredia appealed and fled, but trying to clandestinely reach Spain to appeal the sentence, he drowned on the voyage.

Pedro de Heredia began to be famous in Spain for his feats: taking a city forward in the middle of a semi-desert beach; finish exploring the coasts of "Tierra Firme", until even reaching the feared coasts of Urabá of bad memory due to the terrible experiences of Nicuesa and Ojeda. His brother, Alonso, dedicated himself to exploring the interior, as his graduate, something that no advance had done up to that moment. Although Alonso failed, his attempts inspired subsequent expeditions into these unknown areas.

In 2012, the first two documents were located in the General Archive of the Indies (Seville) that prove that the Indian Catalina was the concubine with whom Pedro de Heredia shared a bedroom in Cartagena de Indias from his arrival in 1533 to 1536, the year in which the Indian Catalina accused him in the first residence trial in Cartagena of stealing the gold of the Spanish Crown.

The Concordat

Here is an extract from the concordat signed on August 5, 1532 by Isabella of Portugal:

The Queen:In how much you, Don Pedro de Heredia, who have manifested the desire to serve the Faith and the Crown, to inhabit and conquer the Tierra Firme, from the Rio Grande de Magdalena to the Rio Grande de Urabá and to submit to our service and to the Royal Crown the indigenous people who live there and illuminate them with the things of our Catholic Faith, I appoint you Governor and Alguacil Major of that territory, I give you two hundred In addition, regarding what you begged me to be able to declare war and sell as slaves to the indigenous who do not accept the Catholic Faith and do not obey what is to be done, I order you to act first in the necessary steps and then to communicate to the Homeland, the Council of the Indies, the eventual disputes. Therefore, you will not be able to take any indigenous as a slave in that territory. This Concordat is valid for twenty years and if you die first, it will pass to your heirs.

Abuse of indigenous people

Pedro de Heredia was one of the bloodiest conquistadors, especially in his expeditions into the lands of the Zenú indigenous people. He was accused before the court of mistreating and burning indigenous people and caciques alive, appropriation of funds, contravention of the law, sending gold without harvesting abroad, nepotism in the granting of positions and parcels, hindering the deliberations of the council and many more charges, for which he was stripped of the governorship of Cartagena de Indias and brought to trial; in 1554 he is declared guilty. De Heredia traveled to Spain to request an appeal but drowned.

Letters and written relationships

Don Pedro de Heredia is one of the first to document the conquest of the Kingdom of New Granada and New Andalusia. In 1533, the then founder and first ruler of Cartagena de Indias wrote the letters and reports written to Emperor Carlos V where he stated his willingness to build the current Castillo San Felipe de Barajas:

The construction of a fortress in Cartagena. (From a letter to Emperor Charles V.)

Sacra, Caesarean, Catholic Majesty:

For other me that V.M. I have written I have given relationship as in this city we are at a very risk of corsairs, because there are many parts where you can disembark outside the port, and you can save badly and with difficulty. It could be made a fortress in a cape of the city, where it suits the most, that it had in fresh water, because it ensures everything, as well as those of the city as of the ships that come... With that V.M., it was served to give for it (construction) twenty pieces of black and black (it could be done) because the materials have been discovered nearby and can be brought to little cost and work and blacks could be supported by the villages of V.M., which here is. And it is a very necessary thing to say strength, as is somism in Santa Maria and Name of God and other parts... The offices that V.M. sent received the four of the present and with them I received the mercy of the license that V.M. sends me to be cured to Castile. Therefore, I kiss the real feet of V.M. whose sacra, Catholic Caesarean, real person, Our Lord guards and exalts with increase of more kingdoms and lordships and victory of enemies, as the vassals of V.M. are bound to desire. De Cartagena, June 14, 1533 years. From V. S. C. Majesty the lower vassal than his actual feet kisses.

Don Pedro de Heredia