Rodrigo de Bastidas

Rodrigo de Bastidas, sometimes written as Rodrigo de la Bastida (Seville, 1475-Santiago de Cuba, 1527) was a Spanish adelantado and conquistador. He explored the Atlantic coast of what is now Colombia, from the La Guajira peninsula to the Gulf of Urabá, the Isthmus of Panama and the Magdalena River, and founded the city of Santa Marta on July 29, 1525.

Biography

Rodrigo de Bastidas lived in Triana, Seville. He participated in Columbus's second voyage to the Indies in 1493, and in 1501 he partially covered the coast of present-day Panama, Colombia, and Venezuela.

On June 5, 1500, he was granted a license to discover islands or lands that were not visited by Columbus or other navigators, as well as lands that did not belong to Portugal, from the coasts of Cabo de la Vela in the extinct Governorate of Coquibacoa.

In September or October 1501, together with the pilot Juan de la Cosa, he set sail from the port of Cádiz in the caravels San Antón and Santa María de Gracia. On this journey the young Vasco Núñez de Balboa embarked, the first conquistador to reach the Pacific Ocean.

Scans

Following the route of Alonso de Ojeda, and after having traveled the coast of present-day Venezuela, he discovers the bays of Santa Marta, Cartagena and Cispatá, the mouth of the Magdalena River, the Gulf of Urabá and the Panamanian coasts (in the current region of Guna Yala, the ports of Nombre de Dios and Retrete). Then he ordered the construction of a port that he named El Escribano in his honor. However, having the ships in very poor condition, he must return to the island of Hispaniola (now Santo Domingo), where the main base of operations of the Spanish conquerors was.

When they reached the coast of Hispaniola, one of their ships was wrecked, but they managed to save part of their cargo, which was mostly gold. On this island he was accused of illegal negotiation with the indigenous people. After being prosecuted in 1502 by Francisco de Bobadilla, who also prosecuted Columbus, he was declared innocent of the charges, and once the royalties had been paid to the Crown, the Catholic Monarchs granted him the collection of an annual rent on the production of the province of Urabá and Zenú.

Santa Marta Foundation

Monument to Rodrigo de Bastidas in Santa Marta.

In December 1521, Rodrigo de Bastidas, who was based on the island of Santo Domingo, asked Emperor Carlos V for a license to found a city and fortress on the main coast, indicating his jurisdiction from Cabo de la Vela to the Bocas de Ceniza del Río Magdalena. On November 6, 1524, the capitulation that established the settlement of the province was signed in Madrid, and on July 29, 1525, Bastidas arrived with his retinue in four ships at an inlet near Gaira. To commemorate that day the festival of Santa Marta de Betania, he gave that place the name of Santa Marta.

Bastidas would have arrived in February 1525, and disembarked with about fifty Spaniards, some of them with their wives, in order to formalize the settlement. Among the Europeans who arrived with Bastidas were Pedro Villafuerte as Lieutenant General, Captain Rodrigo Álvarez Palomino as Field Master, Juan Ledesma as Royal Accountant, the Portuguese Antonio Díaz de Cardoso and Captain Juan de San Martín, among others.

Before the arrival of Bastidas and his men, the natives of Gaira and Taganga offered a peace pact to the Spanish, but the Tayronas and Bondas were not willing to do the same and, instead, attacked the Spanish town multiple times with poisoned arrows. Meanwhile, Bastidas entered into an alliance with the gairas, the tagangas and the dorsinos, who worked on the fortification of the city, initially with palisades. Shortly after, due to his unsanitary living conditions, Bastidas fell ill. Then his lieutenant, Juan de Villafuerte, led a conspiracy along with Pedro de Porras and seven other disgruntled soldiers because of what they considered the excessive good treatment that Bastidas gave the indigenous people. One day, taking advantage of the fact that Bastidas was in bed due to his illness, they entered his room and attacked him with several stab wounds. However, when they came out, Bastidas, who had not died, began to scream for help. Then the field master of Bastidas, Rodrigo Álvarez Palomino, came, who with the help of the rest of the townspeople persecuted the conspirators, and although they were hidden for a few days in the mountains, they were captured and sent to trial in Santo Domingo, where they were sentenced to death. gallows. Bastidas then named Palomino as lieutenant general and embarked to Santo Domingo to be cured of his wounds; However, the conditions of the trip worsened his health and contrary winds meant that the boat had to divert to Cuba, where he died.

Death

Tomb of Rodrigo de Bastidas in the Basilica Cathedral of Santa Marta.

On July 28, 1527, Bastidas died while anchoring in Santiago de Cuba and his remains were buried in the cathedral of that city.

Bastidas had eight children, the most notable of whom was Rodrigo de Bastidas, who was Bishop of Venezuela and Puerto Rico.

Bastidas's remains were exhumed by his son Rodrigo, who was then dean of the Diocese of Santo Domingo, and transferred to Santo Domingo, where they were buried in the Cathedral Basilica of Santa María de la Encarnación, the oldest in America, along with his wife and son. In 1953 the remains were transferred to Santa Marta from the Dominican Republic at the request of the local government. Currently, they rest in the Basilica Cathedral of Santa Marta.

After the violence that led to the death of Bastidas, there were several short-term interim governments, until on December 20, 1527, when García de Lerma signed a capitulation that conferred on him the governorship and the general captaincy of the province of Santa Martha. The situation was critical both because of the bellicosity of the natives and because of the rivalries between the Spaniards themselves that caused the death of Bastidas.

In this context, the Crown decided to assign the new governor exceptional powers to restore order in said territorial demarcation. He even came to ask in 1532 that he not name the governor of Cartagena, an idea that was rejected by the Crown, when Pedro de Heredia was appointed to said governorship.