Martín Fernández de Enciso ( 1470 – 1528) was a Spanish lawyer, colonial official and geographer. He was intrumental in the colonization of the Isthmus of Darien, one of Spain's earliest attempts to occupy the mainland of the Americas. His successful advocacy for the rights of the Crown in the Indies led to the publication of the proclamation known as the ''Requerimiento'' in 1513. In 1519 he published ''Suma de Geografía'', the first Spanish-language account of the New World.

Biography

Very little is known about the early life of Enciso. He was born about 1470 in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Penins ...

and probably studied law. By 1508 he had a thriving legal practice in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

, the capital of the first Spanish colony in the Americas. Gold mining was the primary activity in the colony and Enciso made his fortune from the frequent litigation in the industry. He was instrumental in colonising the Isthmus of Darien.Martín Fernández de Enciso
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Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

article Fernandez de Enciso founded a village near the

Cabo de la Vela Cabo de la Vela (Spanish for "cape of sails") is a headland in the Guajira Peninsula in Colombia with an adjacent small fishing village. It is a popular ecotourism destination of the Caribbean region of Colombia History Spanish explorer Juan ...

with the name ''Nuestra Señora Santa María de los Remedios del Cabo de la Vela'', the first settlement in the

Guajira Peninsula The Guajira Peninsula ( es, Península de La Guajira, links=no, also spelled ''Goajira'', mainly in colonial period texts, guc, Hikükariby) is a peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela in the Caribbean. It is the northe ...

. Due to constant attacks from the indigenous and pirates the village was moved to present-day

Riohacha Riohacha (; Wayuu: ) is a city in the Riohacha Municipality in the northern Caribbean Region of Colombia by the mouth of the Ranchería River and the Caribbean Sea. It is the capital city of the La Guajira Department. It has a sandy beach waterfr ...

in 1544. His ''Suma de Geografia que trata de todas las partidas e provincias del mundo'', published in 1519 in Seville, was the first account in the Spanish language of the discoveries of the New World. Among other things, this document contains one of the first western descriptions of the avocado. Fernández' 1509 expedition from

to aid

Alonso de Ojeda Alonso de Ojeda (; c. 1466 – c. 1515) was a Spanish explorer, governor and conquistador. He travelled through modern-day Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He navigated with Amerigo Vespucci who is famou ...

saw

Vasco Núñez de Balboa Vasco Núñez de Balboa (; c. 1475around January 12–21, 1519) was a Spanish explorer, governor, and conquistador. He is best known for having crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513, becoming the first European to lead an ...

stow away on his ship. In his work, “Suma de Geografía,” Fernández states that they found an indigenous population who called themselves the “'Veneciuela.’” This suggests that the name "

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

" may have evolved from the native word. (The conventional etymology of Venezuela, however, cites Amerigo Vespucci, who, seeing the indigenous palafitos, was reminded of the city of Venice, and therefore named this New World location, "Little Venice".)

Biography

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Further reading