Ávila, Pedro Arias de (c. 1440–1531)

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Ávila, Pedro Arias de (c. 1440–1531)

Pedro Arias de Ávila (Pedrarias Dávila; b. ca. 1440; d. July 1531), Spanish soldier, governor of Panama (1514–1526) and of Nicaragua (1527–1531), and founder of Panama City (1519). Pedrarias was a member of a prominent noble family of Segovia; his uncle was an archbishop and his older brother was the count of Puñonrostro. He was perhaps of converso origins.

In his boyhood Pedrarias was a page in the court of Juan II of Castile and León (1406–1454). In later life he distinguished himself in the war against the Moors in Granada (1482–1492) and as a colonel of infantry fighting in North Africa (1508–1511). Physically imposing and athletic, Pedrarias was nicknamed "the jouster" and "the gallant." After another had declined the honor, he accepted an appointment as captain-general and governor of Castilla del Oro in Darién (also known as Panama), offered in June 1513, despite his being seventy-three years of age.

Information had reached the king about the riches to be found in Panama, and owing to rumors of a great body of water to the south, a large fleet was organized under the command of Pedrarias. Among fifteen hundred or more passengers, the vessels carried a brilliant array of notables, including Pedrarias's wife, Isabel de Bobadilla y Peñalosa, the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, the historian Bernal Díaz Del Castillo, and Hernando de Soto. Altogether, it was perhaps the most distinguished passenger list of any fleet sailing to the New World. Pedrarias embarked for the Indies in April 1514 with orders to assume control of the colony; suspend the acting governor, Vasco Núñez de Balboa; and to bring Balboa to justice on the charge of usurping authority from previous leaders.

The king learned of Balboa's discovery of the Pacific Ocean a few days after the departure of Pedrarias. Accordingly, the crown appointed Balboa adelantado, but he was subject to Pedrarias. It took six months for the commission to reach Panama, and Pedrarias withheld the information from Balboa. Initial contact between the two men was cordial, and Balboa freely shared his knowledge of the land and people of Panama with Pedrarias. Balboa was acquitted in his judicial review, but because of his prestige and popularity, Pedrarias seethed with resentment and jealousy. To help relieve the tension, Bishop Juan de Quevedo arranged the betrothal of Pedrarias's daughter María to Balboa. The aging governor doubtless welcomed a good political match for his eldest daughter, who was in a convent in Seville.

Meantime, lieutenants of Pedrarias led predatory entradas in search of gold and slaves, undoing by their brutality much of the goodwill Balboa had established among the natives. Balboa continued his project to build ships to sail down the Pacific coast to explore the rich land of "Biru," of which Indians had spoken. His plans were interrupted when a companion betrayed him, charging that he planned to overthrow the authority of Pedrarias, to whom he was still subject. Balboa was also accused of being more interested in his Indian mistress than in his betrothed. Pedrarias, his parental pride wounded, saw the opportunity to be rid of his rival once and for all. Balboa, apparently innocent of the charge of treason, was found guilty, denied appeals, and beheaded along with three of his friends at Acla in January 1519.

That same year Pedrarias founded the city of Panama, on the south coast of the isthmus. Under his aegis Pascual de Andagoya made an exploratory voyage in 1522 to investigate the great civilization that was said to exist to the south. Later, Pedrarias was a partner in the expedition of Francisco Pizarro that led to his conquest of Inca Peru. In 1522 Pedrarias also dispatched lieutenants northward, and in 1523 Francisco Hernández de Córdoba, who was welcomed by local caciques, founded the cities of León and Granada in Nicaragua. When he plotted with others and renounced the authority of Pedrarias, Hernández de Córdoba was arrested and executed in 1526. Despite mounting criticism, Pedrarias was appointed governor of Nicaragua in 1527.

His daughter María was married to Rodrigo de Contreras, a nobleman of Segovia and later governor of Nicaragua (1534–1544); another daughter, Isabella, became the wife of explorer Hernando de Soto, the future governor of Cuba. His extreme cruelty to Spaniards and Indians alike notwithstanding, Pedrarias enjoyed powerful support, including that of the influential Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca. With such friends back in Spain, as well as extraordinarily good luck, he served as a governor in Central America for seventeen years, a remarkable career for the times. In 1531, at age ninety, the bitter old man died in León. By then he had justly earned the nickname "the wrath of God," bestowed upon him by a contemporary chronicler.

See alsoPanama City .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The standard biography of Pedrarias is Pablo Álvarez Rubiano, Pedrarias Dávila: Contribución al estudio de la figura del "gran justador," gobernador de Castilla del Oro y Nicaragua (1944), although it sees the subject in a more positive light than do most historians. Very convenient and useful are the 152 documents presented in the appendices. Also valuable is Mario Góngora, Los grupos de conquistadores en Tierra Firme, 1509–1530 (1962). Showing Pedrarias in a very negative role is his contemporary antagonist, the chronicler Gonzalo Fernández De Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Indias, 5 vols. (1959); also critical of Pedrarias is the historian Bartolomé De Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, edited by Agustín Millares Carlo, 3 vols. (1951). See also Carlos Molina Argüello, El gobernador de Nicaragua en el siglo XVI (1949). In English, consult Kathleen Romoli, Balboa of Darien: Discoverer of the Pacific Ocean (1953), and Carl Ortwin Sauer, The Early Spanish Main (1966).