Arrival in Hispaniola
In September 1493, thanks to Rodríguez de Fonseca, he accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to the Americas, arriving on the island of Hispaniola. In January 1494, Columbus gave him the task of finding the members of a number of crews that were lost in the hinterland of the island. Ojeda only had fifteen men at his command in his search of the Cibao region of the island, which was controlled by the warlike Taíno cacique called Caonabo. Ciboa was an area that contained many gold mines and Ojeda returned to La Isabela to report his findings to the Admiral who he found was suffering from a fever.
In March 1494 Columbus founded Fort Santo Tomás, of which Ojeda was named mayor.
Caonabo and his warriors attacked the fort and Ojeda and his men defeated them. Legend has it that Ojeda personally took Caonabo prisoner using golden shackles by making the cacique believe that they were items of royal clothing.
Alonso de Ojeda also took part in the battle of Vega Real (also called the battle of Jáquimo), in which, under his command, the Spanish were victorious. An account of the battle written by Father Bartolomé de las Casas states that the native army comprised ten thousand warriors, while there were only some four hundred Spanish soldiers. Of course it is possible that these figures have been exaggerated. Ojeda returned to Spain in 1496.
Read more about this topic: Alonso De Ojeda
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