Slave Raiders Vs. Friars: Tierra Firme, 1513–1522

In early 1515, a small Spanish expedition set sail for the province of Cumaná, located along the coast of what was then called Tierra Firme (an area spanning much of present-day Central and South America). Nominally, the squadron, led by Spanish scribe Gomez de Ribera, was sent to punish a group of "Carib" Indians who had recently attacked and killed two Spaniards on the small island of San Vicente.¹ Once caught, these "Caribs" would be enslaved and sold in the markets of Española, Puerto Rico, or Cuba. Caribs, though speakers of the Arawakan language, were inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles and were likely culturally and politically distinct from the Taíno of the Greater Antilles.² Inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles first received the ethnic label of Carib during Christopher Columbus's second voyage in 1493. Over time, Europeans exacerbated the pre-Columbian divide between Caribs and Taínos, creating a colonial dichotomy that helped the Spanish to expand the indigenous slave trade. By the third decade of colonization, or the time of Ribera's expedition, the Spanish had begun labeling all rebellious Indians as Caribs or cannibals so as to legally enslave them.³

Whether or not Ribera and his crew reached San Vicente and attacked or punished the group of Caribs in question remains unclear. However, we do know that in early 1515 they anchored off the coastline of present-day Venezuela, near Cumaná, within the territory controlled by Dominican friars. There, Ribera made contact with the indigenous peoples of the area, inviting a group of 18 to come aboard his ship to engage in trade. At this point, Ribera should have realized that the Indians he had on board his vessel were connected with the friars, as they all spoke at least some Spanish and trusted that the Spanish merchants meant them no harm.⁴ It is likely that the Indians believed that Spanish slavers would leave them alone, so long as they stayed within the bounds of the recently established Dominican missions. However, this was not the case.

Instead of trading with the 18 Indians, Ribera ordered the anchor lifted and the sails hoisted, taking the Indians prisoner. He and his crew then set sail for Española where he quickly sold his captives to various judges and encomenderos, all of whom conveniently ignored the fact that Ribera did not possess the license required to purchase or take Indian slaves from Tierra Firme.⁵ Although Ribera's was only one of many illegal slave raids for which little or no documentation remains, this raid was an exception because one of the captives was the cacique don Alonso. A native of the Paria peninsula, Alonso had developed a close relationship with the friars over the time since their arrival in 1514. Additionally, he had been baptized—hence the Spanish name and title—and therefore could not be enslaved according to the laws of the Indies. It was this trust and friendship that Ribera and his men took advantage of to lure the cacique, his wife, and 16 of his subject Indians aboard their ship.

Ribera's actions damaged not only don Alonso and his family but the Dominican mission as well. The Dominican friars of Tierra Firme depended upon the friendship and cooperation of indigenous leaders like Alonso for the mission's support and survival. With his capture, the friars lost both an important ally and the support of much of the local indigenous population. Many Indians even believed that the friars had helped or at the very least sanctioned Ribera's slaving expedition. Realizing their precarious situation, the friars immediately dispatched a letter to Pedro de Córdoba, the Royal Inquisitor of the Indies and a Dominican friar living in Santo Domingo. In the document, they demanded the return of Alonso and his family within four months, explaining that they had been enslaved illegally. The friars pleaded not only for the freedom of the Indians, but for the safety and survival of their mission in Tierra Firme.⁶

The friars were right to be concerned. Despite denunciations...