Commentary No. 012
Date: 1511, October 23 or 24
Theme: Royal order mandating that Pedro de Ledesma be paid his salary for piloting a vessel that took a cargo of enslaved Blacks to La Española
Source: PARES, Portal de Archivos Españoles--Archivo General de Indias,INDIFERENTE,418,L.3, F.181V-182R - 1 - Imagen Núm: 1 / 2
This document of October 1511 confirms that, possibly sometime around the summer of 1510, the Spanish Crown itself engaged in sending a vessel from Spain to La Española with a cargo of Black slaves, though no specific amount of enslaved persons is cited in the document. The ship was piloted by a Pedro de Ledesma, who upon returning to Spain faced reluctance from the officials of the Casa de Contratación to pay him his pilot’s honorary alleging lack of readability of the royal order he presented as proof of his work contract. This refusal triggered Ledesma’s complaining before the Crown, and the Crown ordering the Contratación officials to pay Ledesma his salary. The entire roundtrip from Seville to La Española and back reportedly took Ledesma sixteen months.