Ovando, Nicolásde (1451–1518)

Nicolás de Ovando (b. 1451; d. 1518), governor of Hispaniola. Born in Cáceres, in Extremadura, Spain, Ovando was a member of the military Order of Calatrava. On 3 September 1501 the crown ordered him to Hispaniola to investigate the administration of Francisco de Bobadilla and to reestablish order. Ovando arrived in April 1502; his large fleet had departed Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, with some twenty-five hundred colonists, including Bartolomé de Las Casas, a man who would later achieve fame as the Protector of the Indians. Using ample force and authority, Ovando completed the "pacification" of the island, subduing both native Americans and Spanish malcontents, and returning unruly colonists to Spain in chains.

Ovando also exercised some more positive imperatives. He sought to establish new towns and cities, following a general gridiron pattern that later came to characterize town planning in Spanish America. Santo Domingo was refounded on the opposite bank of the Ozama River. Ovando also ordered continued exploration of Hispaniola and nearby islands: Andrés Morales prepared a detailed map; Sebastián de Ocampo completed the circumnavigation of Cuba; Juan Ponce De León was authorized to explore Puerto Rico. Ovando was generally interested in protecting Amerindians and experimented to see if they could live freely as Europeans. By a royal cedula of 20 December 1503, he instituted a division (repartimiento) of Indians, which was the foundation for the encomienda system.

On the outgoing fourth expedition of Columbus, Ovando refused the explorer safe admission to the port of Santo Domingo. Had it been possible for Columbus to refit and repair ships and perhaps purchase better ones, the Jamaica disaster might have been averted. In 1508 Ovando was replaced by Diego Colón.

See alsoColumbus, Christopher; Encomienda; Las Casas, Bartolomé de; Militias: Colonial Spanish America; Ponce de León, Juan; Repartimiento; Santo Domingo.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ursula Lamb, Frey Nicolás de Ovando (1956).

Carl Ortwin Sauer, The Early Spanish Main (1967).

Additional Bibliography

Mira Caballos, Esteban. Nicolás de Ovando y los orígenes del sistema colonial español, 1502–1509. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Patronato de la Ciudad Colonial de Santo Domingo, 2000.

                                        Noble David Cook