Juan de la Cosa

1450 – 1510

Juan de la Cosa was a Castilian navigator and cartographer who served as owner and master of the Santa María on Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas in 1492 and accompanied Columbus on subsequent voyages as well. His 1500 mappa mundi is the earliest surviving European map to depict the Americas. He participated in the violent enslavement and exploitation of the Indigenous people of Hispaniola and the Caribbean, and was killed by a poisoned arrow during a 1510 colonial expedition to the South American mainland.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM