1460, Spain's Noblest Conquistador,

     1460 Spain

Hard and brutally treated to indigenous,
                               [the Spanish and Portuguese "conquistadores"...
Similarly certainly and the explorers, from Magellan to the Torres,
but there is no exception to the rule,
                                         [that every rule has an exception...

There was a conqueror who had not the mind to the gold
                                                            [and in the deception...

The year 1460 was born this great humanitarian,
an answer to each crude man, to every barbarian.
It was Rodrigo de Bastidas, a Spanish conquistador,
who mapped the northern coast of South America,
                                                   [from Brazil to Ecuador.
He is the man who discovered Panama, where later,
will open the big channel, surely the world's second greater.

He had a policy of humanity and friendship,
                                               [towards his neighbors, and much respect,
to Tagangas, Dorsinos and Gairas,
                                   [and he spoke each local language and dialect...

This humanist, before his men to the natives attack,
begged them to surrender,
in the brutality an exception, I would say a crack....

"The chances of you all to survive are very few,
because I assure you that with the help of God,
                        [I will enter powerfully against you,
and I will make war on you in every place and in every way.....
Τhe deaths and harms which arise from this,
                        [will be your fault, I have to say...
I was ordered by the king, against my will to do this,
so my suggestion to surrender, please do not dismiss".....
Bastidas had also a Policy,
                       [prohibiting his troops robbing the Indians of their goods.
He refused to share the inhabitans gold with his men,
                       [and for this was found stabbed in the woods...

Years later he has been called Spain's Noblest Conquistador,
because he was righteous and somewhat like a peace crusader.

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''IT COULD BE OTHERWISE in verse''
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS// ___________________________________________________


* Rodrigo de Bastidas, (1460 – July 28, 1527) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer who mapped the northern coast of South America, discovered Panama, and founded the city of Santa Marta. Rodrigo de Bastidas was a well-to-do notary of the town of Triana, Seville, a suburb of Seville

After sailing with Christopher Columbus during his second voyage to the New World about 1494, Bastidas petitioned the Spanish Monarchy to start his own quest to be financed totally with his own money. In exchange for granting bastidas the right to explore various territories in the New World, the Crown required him to give them one fourth of the net profits he acquired.

The King and Queen issued a charter that is still preserved in the National Archives in Spain. He sailed to the New World from Cádiz in October, 1499, with two ships, the San Antón and the Santa Maria de Gracia. He was accompanied on this voyage by Juan de la Cosa and Vasco Núñez de Balboa.

At the South American coast he sailed westward from Cabo de la Vela, Colombia, in an attempt to reconnoiter the coastline of the Caribbean basin.

He discovered the mouth of a river he named the Magdalena River and the Gulf of Urabá on the Panamanian/Colombian coast.

He reached La Punta de Manzanillo on Panama's upper Caribbean coast before having to abandon his effort. He is acknowledged to be the first European to have claimed that part of the isthmus, and therefore is credited with the discovery of Panama which includes the San Blas region of the Kuna Indians. 
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to be continued

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