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This time Columbus took a southerly
route, crossing the Atlantic Ocean close to the
equator to see if any land existed there en
route to the Indies. Past the Canary Islands, he
sent three ships ahead to Hispaniola, retain-
ing the other three for a fresh effort to find the
mainland of Asia. The equatorial heat of the
southerly route ruined food and caused wine
to resume fermenting. Father Bartolomé de
Las Casas, summarizing from Columbus’s
original log, wrote that “the heat was so
intense and scorching that they wereafraid
the men and ships would burn up.”
The ships eventually picked up speed and
crossed the Atlantic, first sighting an island
dominated by three mountain peaks. Follow-
ing his practice of naming geography after
Christian figures, Columbus named the island
Trinidad after the Holy Trinity. The ships
rounded the southwest corner of Trinidad just
in time to be buffeted by a terrifying tidal or
volcanic disturbance. The channel is still
known by the name Columbus gave it—Boca
del Sierpe, the Serpent’s Mouth. A short sail
directly north took the ships to the tip of the
Paria Peninsula, on the eastern coast of what
is nowVenezuela. On August 5 Columbus
landed there, becoming the first European
explorer to set foot on the South American
mainland.(^34) B Discovery of the Americas, 1492–1800
The Encomienda=
The first wave of colonists who followed Christopher Columbus’s reports of gold
to the Americas were interested in reaping fortunes, then returning home to
Spain. Few were interested in working to sustain genuine colonies. Starting
with Columbus’s first settlements, such labor was imposed upon Indians
through an institution called the encomienda(commission), which distributed
conquered land and people to colonists. Every encomiendaconferred specific
rights and obligations upon a recipient, or encomendero.Native people under
an encomendero’s control were forced to provide labor and tribute, such as a
quota of gold. In return, an encomenderowas responsible for the welfare of his
workers, their assimilation into Spanish culture, and religious instruction in
Christianity.
Queen Isabella, who considered the Native people Columbus encountered to
be her subjects, instructed him to provide for their religious education and to
“treat them well and lovingly and abstain from doing them any injury.” Slavery
was strictly forbidden. When Columbus disobeyed this order in 1495 during his
second stay at Hispaniola and sent 500 slaves to Spain, he was rebuked and the
survivors were returned home. Conceived to avoid abuse of the Indians, how-
ever, the actual practice of the encomiendasystem in the Americas instead
became an excuse for forced labor. Native tribes frequently revolted against the
system, under which many Indians were literally worked to death. The Spanish
Crown’s inability to enforce its rules made encomiendascontroversial even in
Columbus’s time, but they were employed throughout the Americas. The sys-
tem was not formally discontinued until 1717.
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