Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He is famous for having named Venezuela, which he explored during his first two expeditions, for having been the first European to visit Guyana, Curaçao, Colombia (La Guajira) and Lake Maracaibo, and later for founding Santa Cruz (La Guairita). He also travelled to Trinidad, Tobago and Aruba, in some of his travels he journeyed with Amerigo Vespucci and Juan de la Cosa.
Ojeda was part of the first wave of Spanish conquistadors in the Americas.
Early life Alonso de Ojeda was born in Torrejoncillo del Rey, New Castile around 1466. His father, Rodrigo de Huete, was a minor noble who fought for Isabel in 1474 during the War of the Castilian Succession. Isabel was grateful for his support and put his son, Alonso, under her protection. In his youth, Alonso served the Duke of Medinaceli, Luis de la Cerda.Vigneras 1976 In service to the duke, he distinguished himself in the conquest of Granada with his military abilities, his skill as a swordsman and his bravery.Irving 1831
Alonso was slight of stature, clever, and handsome. It was reputed that he was always the first to draw blood in any fight.Thomas 2003 According to Bartolomé de las Casas, he combined "in his person all the bodily perfections that man could have, despite his small size."Quoted in Thomas, 2003
Arrival in Hispaniola Following Columbus's successful first voyage of discovery, a second voyage with a much larger fleet was organized for Columbus by Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca. Medinaceli had been a patron of both Columbus and Ojeda, so perhaps it is not surprising that Ojeda was selected at a relatively young age to captain one of the ships on this new voyage. Fonseca was also impressed with Ojeda and would later become his most important patron.
The fleet sailed for the island of Hispaniola in September 1493 and reached the Caribbean in November. One of their first stops was the island of Guadalupe where a landing party went missing. Fearing for their safety (the islanders were suspected of being cannibals), Columbus sent Ojeda ashore with an armed contingent to search for the lost group. The missing party eventually showed up on their own but Ojeda's search turned up additional evidence that the Caribs on the island did practice cannibalism.
They reached Hispaniola at the end of November and discovered the fort, Navidad, constructed during the first voyage was in ruins and all the Spaniards left behind were dead. The local natives blamed the trouble on a cacique from the interior named Caonabo. They began to explore the island and build a permanent settlement named Isabela. In January 1494, Columbus sent a small armed party led by Ojeda to search for gold in a mountainous region of the island known as Cibao. Ojeda returned two weeks later bringing a few substantial gold nuggets and reporting there was much gold to be found in the area.Morison 1974
The discovery of gold focused attention on Cibao. In March 1494 Columbus led a group of nearly 500 men to explore the region. The hunt for gold was unsuccessful but natives from the surrounding area brought in gold for trade. Columbus established a fort, Santo Tomas (named as a rebuke to those who doubted the presence of gold), to serve as a trading post and as a base for further prospecting. , a nobleman from Aragon and a confidant of the king, was put in command of the fort when Columbus returned to Isabela.Sauer 1966
In April 1494, Columbus sent Ojeda with a force of about 350 soldiers to relieve de Margarit at Santo Tomas. Columbus wanted de Margarit to take the bulk of the soldiers and search the island for gold, seize food from the natives, and capture Caonabo. At an important river crossing controlled by a friendly tribe, Ojeda arrested the local cacique and other officials with the allegation that some clothes had been stolen during a previous expedition. Ojeda cut the ears off one captive and sent the rest back to Isabela in chains. Ojeda's brutal punishment shocked the local people and turned them against the Spaniards. When Ojeda arrived at the fort, de Margarit refused to follow Columbus's orders and remained at the fort with his men. Not long after, he returned to Spain, disapproving of the chaotic situation and mistreatment of the Indians.
After de Margarit's refusal to capture Caonabo, Columbus ordered Ojeda to find the cacique allegedly responsible for destroying the original Spanish settlement at Navidad. According to Bartolomé de las Casas, Ojeda presented Caonabo with a fine set of polished brass manacles and shackles and convinced him to wear them as a symbol of royalty. The ruse was successful and Ojeda brought the chief back to Columbus.
Following Ojeda's mistreatment of the Indians at the river, a fort had to be built to protect the vital crossing. Late in 1494, the first Indian rebellion took place at this spot; the fort was destroyed and ten Spaniards killed by the local tribes. Columbus retaliated with a force of 500 led by Ojeda. The rebels were badly beaten and some 1500 were taken as slaves—600 were shipped to Spain and the remaining were parceled out to those on the island.
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 Las Casas states that the native army comprised ten thousand warriors, while there were only some four hundred Spanish soldiers. Of course, these figures may have been exaggerated. Ojeda returned to Spain in 1496.
First voyage to Venezuela
On returning to Spain, Ojeda was commissioned by the Catholic Monarchs, without the permission of Columbus, to sail for America again, which he did on 18 May 1499 with three caravels. He travelled with the pilot and cartographer Juan de la Cosa and the Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci. While Columbus had touched a small portion of Venezuelan coast in 1498, it was only after this voyage that sustained contact with indigenous people was established. This was the first of a series of what have become known as the "minor journeys" or "Andalusian journeys" that were made to the New World.
On leaving Spain the flotilla sailed along the west coast of Africa to Cape Verde before taking the same route that Columbus had used a year before on his third voyage. After making landfall Vespucci decided to separate from the flotilla and he sailed south towards Brazil. The main flotilla arrived at the mouths of the rivers Essequibo and Orinoco in the Gulf of Paria. It also visited the peninsulas of Paria and Araya, the islands of Trinidad and Margarita and traveled along the continental coast, always in search of a passage towards India. The flotilla then sailed along the Paraguaná Peninsula and sighted the island of Curacao, which was named Giants Island as the indigenous people that were seen were thought to be giants. During the same journey, he constructed a ship and visited the islands of Aruba and the Las Aves archipelago.
During the voyage along the Paraguaná Peninsula, the flotilla entered into a gulf (Gulf of Venezuela) where there were villages of the Wayuu people with palafito houses built over the water and supported on stilts made from tree trunks. These villages are said to have reminded Amerigo Vespucci of the city of Venice, (), and so the area was given the name Venezuela. p. 177. meaning Little Venice. (However, according to Martín Fernández de Enciso, who supported Ojeda's 1509 expedition, they found a local population calling themselves the Veneciuela, so "Venezuela" may derive from the local term.) The flotilla arrived at the entrance to Lake Maracaibo on 24 August 1499. The lake was originally named after Saint Bartholomew as this was his saints day. Ojeda also reached Cabo de la Vela, on the Guajira Peninsula, which he named Coquivacoa.
A few days later the expedition left Cabo de la Vela for Hispaniola with some pearls obtained in Paria, a little gold and several slaves. The scarcity of goods and slaves resulted in a poor economic return for investors in the expedition. However, the importance of the voyage comes from the fact that it was the first detailed reconnaissance of the coast of Venezuela and that Spanish explorers carried it out. Following Columbus's third voyage Ojeda is credited with leading the second European expedition to have visited Venezuela, and the first to have visited Colombia. The expedition also gave Juan de la Cosa the chance to draw the first known map of the area now known as Venezuela, as well as being possibly the first journey that Vespucci made to the New World.
However, when the expedition arrived in Hispaniola on 5 September the followers of Christopher Columbus were angry because they considered that Ojeda was infringing upon Columbus's exploring privileges. This resulted in brawls and fights between both groups, which left many dead and wounded. Ojeda took many captives back to Spain whom he sold as slaves. Even so, the voyage was not financially successful, netting some fifteen thousand maravedis in profit to be divided among the fifty-five crew members surviving from the original three hundred. Note, that since forty maravedis per day was an average wage for skilled labor at this time, they could have made more money staying at home. Returning on the heels of Pedro Alonso Nino's smaller but far more lucrative voyage magnified this disappointment.Dugard, Martin. The Last Voyage of Columbus. Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2005. p85. The date of return is disputed: it is usually stated that Ojeda returned in June 1500 but the historian Demetrio Ramos has suggested the earlier date of November 1499., cited in
Second voyage to Venezuela
Ojeda decided to make another journey and he received a new commission from the Catholic Monarchs on 8 June 1501. He was appointed Governor of Coquivacoa behind the back of Christopher Columbus. This appointment gave him the right to found a colony in this area, although he was advised not to visit Paria. On this occasion he formed a partnership with the Andalusian merchants Juan de Vergara and García de Campos, who were able to charter four caravels: the Santa María de la Antigua, the Santa María de la Grenada, the Magdalena, and the Santa Ana.Irving, Washington. The Companions of Columbus. Carey and Lea, 1831.
Ojeda set sail from Spain in January 1502 and he followed the same route as his first voyage. On this occasion, he kept his distance from the Gulf of Paria and made landfall on Margarita Island where, according to some sources, he tried to obtain gold and pearls from the indigenous people using several different methods. He sailed along the coast of Venezuela from Curiana to the Paraguaná Peninsula. On 3 May 1502, he founded a colony on the Guajira Peninsula, at Bahia Honda. The colony was called Santa Cruz and it was the first Spanish settlement on Colombian territory and therefore the first on the American mainland.
However, the colony did not last for more than three months, as the new arrivals started attacking the indigenous villages in the area, causing constant conflict with them. In addition to this, there were personal difficulties between Ojeda and his men. At this point, Vergara and Campos took Ojeda prisoner and abandoned the settlement with the small amount of plunder that had been captured. Ojeda was put in prison in Hispaniola in May 1502, where he was held until 1504. He was released following an appeal made by Archbishop Rodríguez de Fonseca, although he had to pay a costly indemnity, which left him with little money.
The second voyage was, therefore, a failure as he had not discovered any new areas and he had not received much of a share of the plunder obtained by Vergara and Campos. Besides, the Santa Cruz colony was abandoned and the Governorship of Coquivacoa was abolished.
Third voyage to New Andalusia