Bastidas, Rodrigo de

Rodrigo de Bastidas ( Spanish: Rodrigo de Bastidas ;?, Seville - July 28, 1527 , Santiago de Cuba , Cuba ) - Spanish conquistador with the title Adelantado and explorer of the northern coast of South America , founder of the city of Santa Marta .

Rodrigo de Bastidas
Spanish Rodrigo de Bastidas
Date of Birth
Place of Birth	Seville , Spain
Date of death	July 27, 1527 ( 1527-07-27 )
Place of death	Santiago de Cuba
Citizenship	Spain
Occupation	researcher , conquistador
Children

In his youth, he served as a notary in Seville . After the second journey of Christopher Columbus to the New World in 1494 and the first trip of Alonso de Ojeda in 1499, in which Bastidas was directly involved, he asked the king to create his own expedition and personally financed it. In exchange for the right to explore new territories, the Spanish royal family demanded ¼ of their income.

In October 1500, Bastidas sailed from Cadiz in two ships called San Antón and Santa Maria de Gracia . Vasco Nunez de Balboa and Juan de la Cosa accompanied him on this expedition. Upon reaching the shores of South America, Bastidas explored about 1000 km of the Caribbean coast , discovered the mouth of the Magdalena River , as well as the Gulf of Darien and the Gulf of Urab . The expedition was the first to explore the interior of the continent in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region . Due to the poor condition of the ships caused by shipworms , he was forced to return to Santo Domingo , after being the first European to set foot on the Isthmus of Panama .

During the voyage in 1502, Bastidas found a lot of gold, but on charges of illegal trade was arrested by the Governor of Hispaniola Francisco de Bobadilla and sent to Spain.

He was acquitted by the royal family and returned to the New World, where he raised livestock in Haiti until 1524, and then founded the city of Santa Marta on the north coast of Colombia . In 1527, Rodrigo de Bastidas was wounded by rebellious soldiers, went to treatment in Santo Domingo, but died on the way to Cuba .

Bastidas was considered the most noble conquistador of Spain, because he treated the Indians with humanity and respect. .