Pedrarias Dávila
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Pedrarias Dávila (Pedro Arias de Ávila) (Segovia, Castile, c. 1440 – León, March 6, 1531), was a Spanish colonial administrator. He led the first great Spanish expedition in the New World.
He married an intimate friend of queen Isabella I of Spain (whence probably his preferment) and saw some service in Europe. Dávila served as soldier in wars against Moors at Granada, in Spain, and in North Africa. At the age of nearly seventy years he was made commander in 1514 by king Ferdinand II of Aragon of the largest Spanish expedition (19 vessels and 1,500 men) sent to America. He reached Santa Marta in Colombia. Thence he went to Darién, where the discoverer of the Pacific Ocean and his son-in-law, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, governed. Pedrarias superseded him, gave him his daughter in wedlock, and afterwards had him judicially murdered. Another of Pedrarias's daughters, born when he was elderly, was married to his loyal lieutenant, the successful conquistador and ill fated explorer Hernando de Soto.
In 1519 he founded Panama City and moved his capital there in 1524, abandoning Darién. Dávila sent Gil González Dávila to explore northward. In 1524 he sent another expedition with Francisco Hernández de Córdoba.
He was a party to the original agreement with Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro which brought about the discovery of Peru, but withdrew (1526) for a small compensation, having lost confidence in the outcome. In the same year he was superseded as Governor of Panama by Pedro de los Ríos, and retired to León in Nicaragua, where he was named its new governor on July 1, 1527. Here he lived for the rest of his life until he died at the age of 91 on March 6, 1531.
He left an unenviable record, as a man of unreliable character, cruel, and unscrupulous. Through his foundation of Panama, however, he laid the basis for the discovery of South America's west coast and the subsequent conquest of Peru.
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia.
