Sedeño, Antonio de (?–1539)
Sedeño, Antonio de (?–1539)
Antonio de Sedeño (d. 1539), conquistador of Tierra Firme, adelantado of Trinidad. In 1531 Sedeño, a contador of San Juan, Puerto Rico, was granted the title of adelantado for the island of Trinidad. Sedeño's original assault of the island with eighty men was repulsed by hostile Arawaks. In spite of the tenacity of the island's native population, a second attempt by Sedeño to conquer the island proved successful. Drawn to the wealth of the South American mainland, Sedeño proceeded to the Gulf of Paria, where he competed with Jerónimo de Alderete and Martín Nieto for conquest of the coastal region in open rebellion of the legitimate governor, Jerónimo de Ortal. The Audiencia of Santo Domingo sent its fiscal Juan de Frías to bring Sedeño to trial, but Sedeño captured the royal official and proceeded inland along the Orinoco River. During his escape, Sedeño was poisoned by one of his own men.
See alsoAdelantado .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Pierre G. L. Borde, The History of Trinidad Under Spanish Government, vol. 1, translated by James Alva Bain (1982), esp. pp. 92-124.
Michael Anthony, First in Trinidad (1985), pp. 5-7.
José De Oviedo y Baños, The Conquest and Settlement of Venezuela, translated by Jeannette Johnson Varner (1987), esp. pp. 59-60.
Michael A. Polushin