Who was Juan de la Cosa?

Born in 1460 in the spanish town of ''Santoña''. Juan De La Cosa was the captain of the ''Santa María'' ship, one of the three who went to the discoverment of America. It was then when the queen asked him to esplore the coasts of the Orinoco river. While going on this trip, he got shot by an indian arrow. This happened during the year 1500.

When he got back to Spain. He started making, by order of the king, the very first american map, which is styll under a hard look after at the ''Museo Naval de Madrid''.

At 1503 he was sent to a very delicate mission on Portugal. It did not went pretty well and the queen had to intervene herself to ask for his freedom.
His sixth and last trip took place at the time of 1510. In this trip he finally stayed on the new territory as lieutenant governor.

Despite the fact that De La Cosa did not wanted to enter on the zone that would be called ''Cartagena de Indias'' in the future, his companion and friend Alonso de Ojeda, insisted on him to go. While this conquest he was ordered to get inside the island. He got by surprise by a group of indians who shot him and his men with poisoned arrows. This leaded to their death at the same year.


For more information visit:

http://www.americas-fr.com/es/historia/juan-de-la-cosa.html
http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/c/cosa.htm