Pedro de Heredia - First Expedition To The New World

First Expedition To The New World

Once in Madrid, Heredia initiated efforts to gain royal approval to secure the conquest and government of the Bay of Cartagena and the New Andalucía, a territory that stretched from the mouth of the Magdalena River to the Darién, which had belonged to Alonso de Ojeda. The capitulation was signed in Medina del Campo on August 5, 1532 by queen Joanna of Castile (also known as Joanna the Mad). Heredia was given a whole new area going inland to the equator, which covered virtually what is now Colombia and more than half of Ecuador up to the equinoctial line. Heredia moved to Sevilla, enlisted a galleon, a caravel and a patache and embarked 150 men and 22 horses with whom he departed from Cádiz in November of 1532.

Heredia landed in Puerto Rico first, where he found the remains of an expedition led by Sebastian Cabot who was on his way back from the Rio de La Plata after six tough and unsuccessful years spent at the south of the New World. Heredia strengthened his army with some of Cabot’s ex-partners, among others, Francisco César, whom he appointed as his lieutenant. He then departed to Santo Domingo, visited his estates and enrolled some Indians and slaves, a few Spanish women and an interpreter, Catalina, a native Indian princess fluent in both the Spanish and Indian tongues who had been kidnapped by Diego de Nicuesa when she was a girl.