Juan de la Cosa
Juan de la Cosa (* around 1449 , according to other sources 1460 in Santoña , Cantabria ; † February 28, 1510 in Cartagena , Colombia ) was a Spanish navigator , cartographer and explorer .
Juan de la Cosa was a shareholder in the Santa Maria on Christopher Columbus ' first voyage to America in 1492 and accompanied this expedition as captain . He caused the Santa Maria disaster . Sometimes his activities gave the impression that he knew more than Columbus. On his second voyage to America from 1493 to 1496, Juan de la Cosa was captain of the Marigalante and chief cartographer. On Columbus' third voyage in 1498, he returned to the Caribbean on board the La Niña .
From 1499 to 1500 he also joined the forays of Alonso de Ojeda , Vasco Núñez de Balboa and Andrés Morales in the Gulf of Maracaibo as captain . Murdering and plundering, they roamed the settlements of the Caquetio and other tribes in search of gold and pearls. A highly regarded map of the world originates from this period , on which one can see the outlines of the Gulf of Mexico and part of the South American coast, which he took from Amérigo Vespucci's and Pedro Álvares Cabral's notes, in addition to the Caribbean islands just discovered for Europe . Ironically, the Isthmus of Panama is decorated with imaginative ornamentation; Christopher Columbus, who was convinced that he had discovered India (= Asia) with the Caribbean islands , had explored this when he believed himself to be on the Strait of Malacca and was looking for it. This mappa mundi was only rediscovered in the 19th century by Alexander von Humboldt .
On his fifth sea voyage to the New World in 1500 Juan de la Cosa joined Rodrigo de Bastidas and Vasco Núñez de Balboa , with whom he again explored the coasts of Panama and Colombia for precious metals. In 1506 he led the expedition to the Gulf of Urabá . In 1509 Juan de la Cosa set out again with Diego de Nicuesa , Francisco Pizarro and Alonso de Ojeda to explore the Gulf of Darién . De la Cosa died there of a poisoned arrow from a local.
literature
- The small encyclopedia , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, volume 1, page 316
- Peter Mesenburg: The world map of Juan de la Cosa , in: Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv (21-1998), pp. 429-438.
Web links
- Peter Mesenburg: Portolan of Juan de la Cosa
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cosa, Juan de la |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Spanish navigator, cartographer and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1449 or 1460 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Santoña near Santander |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 28, 1510 |
| Place of death | Cartagena , Colombia |