Discovery and Conquest
On July 30, 1502, on his fourth and final voyage, Columbus arrived off the island of Guanaja. Naming it the "Isla de Pinos" (Island of Pines), he then continued exploring the Central American coastline, accompanied by a Pech trader encountered coming from the direction of Guatemala. Sailing east along the coast, the fleet first stopped at Punta Caxinas, close to present-day Trujillo, where the first Catholic Mass in Latin America was held on August 14, 1502. Sailing on into harsh storms, the fleet rounded a cape where, encountering calmer waters, Columbus is reputed to have exclaimed "Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de estas honduras" (Thank God we have now left these depths), christening both the cape - Cabo Gracias a Dios - and eventually the country. Initially, however, the Spanish called these new lands Higueras, the name used by the indigenous groups they encountered. Twenty years elapsed before the conquistadors returned to take possession of the new territory, the nominal conqueror being Gil Gonzalez Davila , who sailed up the Pacific coast from Panama and partially explored the lands that now form Nicaragua and Honduras. In 1524, however, Hernan Cortes despatched his lieutenant Cristobal de Olid to claim the whole of the isthmus on Cortes's behalf. Olid landed on the north coast in May 1524 and founded the first Spanish settlement, Triunfo de la Cruz on the Bahia de Tela; his own claims on the territory were abruptly ended by assassination later that year. Cortes himself, desperate to stamp his ownership on the new lands, left Mexico for Honduras in 1525, arriving on the north coast in the spring and ordering the founding of Puerto Caballos (now Puerto Cortes) and Trujillo. Aware that his absence from Mexico was undermining his position, however, Cortes returned there in April 1525. Five years later Pedro de Alvarado , despatched from Guatemala, arrived to govern the territory. Under Alvarado, the city of San Pedro Sula was founded in 1536, and control of the inland regions was secured.
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