Columbus lost no time searching for the gold he’d promised Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. On January 7, 1494, 528 years ago, he dispatched an expedition of over thirty lightly armed soldiers to find it in the island’s mountainous interior, led by the man who would become his most trusted lieutenant in the settlement’s early years, Alonso de Hojeda. At Columbus’s request, the local Taíno chieftains with whom he was trading provided guides to accompany the expedition.
Cruel and deceitful, Hojeda subsequently would carve a niche in history as both a slave trader and pirate, and Columbus and Caonabó depicts his early transgressions under Columbus’s command.
The route to the interior required first surmounting the coastal mountain range in the Dominican Republic now known as the Cordillera Septentrional. Hojeda’s men crossed at a pass Columbus soon would name the “Puerto de los Hidalgos” (Pass of the Gentlemen).
The illustration below is of Hojeda later in life, taken from Antonio de Herrera’s Historia General, 1601. The photos are of the mountain rage, including Puerto de los Hidalgos (to the left), taken from near Isabela, and of the coast, including Isabela, taken from the pass.
