NICOLÁS DE OVANDO (1474)

Spanish military leader and first royal governor of the West Indies, first to apply the encomienda system of Indian forced labour which became widespread in Spanish America and founded a stable Spanish community in Santo Domingo that became a base and model for later settlement.

The son of a noble family he grew up close to the court of Ferdinand and Isabella and was among the companions of the heir apparent to the throne. As a knight of the military Order of Alcántara he helped to reform the order and as a reward for his services was chosen to replace Francisco de Bobadilla as governor of the Spanish colonies in the West Indies.

He arrived in Santo Domingo in 1502 with more than 2,000 colonists and their largest fleet that had ever sailed to the New World.

The natives of Santo Domingo were reluctant to work for the Spanish colonists and Ovando with royal authority established the paternalistic encomienda system. Intended to offer the Indians food and security in exchange for their labour it quickly became a means for simple and brutal exploitation.

Perhaps fearing him as a rival Ovando let Christopher Columbus linger for a year without help in Jamaica where the explorer had run aground on his fourth voyage to America.

On learning of Ovando´s harsh treatment of the Indians the authorities in Spain recalled him in 1509.
He returned to Spain where he wrote his memoirs and published a map of Santo Domingo.