In 1508, Alphonso de Hojeda went with the license of King Ferdinand, but at his own charges, to conquer the province of Darien, in the Terra Firma of the new world.  Landing in the country of Uraba, he called it Castilia del Oro, or Golden Castile, because of the gold found in the sand along its coast.  He went first from the city of San Domingo, in Hispaniola, with four ships and three hundred soldiers, leaving behind him the bachelor Anciso, who afterwards compiled a book of these discoveries.  He was followed by a fourth ship with provisions and ammunition, and a reinforcement of 150 Spaniards.  Hojeda landed at Carthagena, where the natives took, slew, and devoured seventy of his men, by which his force was much weakened.  Some time after but in the same year, Diego de Niquesa fitted out seven ships in the port of Beata, intending to go to Veragua with 800 men; but coming to Carthegana, where he found Hojeda much weakened by his losses, they joined their forces, and avenged themselves of the natives.  In this voyage Niquesa discovered the coast called Nombre de Dios, and went into the sound of Darien, on the river Pito, which he named Puerto de Misas.  Coming to Veragua, Hojeda went on shore with his soldiers, and built there the town of Caribana, as a defence against the Caribbees; being the first town built by the Spaniards on the continent of the new world.  He also built another at Nombre de Dios, and called it Nuestra Seniora de la Antigua.  A town was built at Uraba, in which Francis Pisarro was left with the command, who was there much annoyed by the natives.  They likewise built other towns, the names of which I omit.  In this enterprize the Spaniards did not meet with the success they expected.

In 1509, Don Diego Columbus, the second admiral of New Spain, went to the island of Hispaniola with his wife and household; and she, being a noble woman, carried with her many ladies of good families, who were there married; by which means the Spaniards began to multiply in their new colony, and Hispaniola became famous and much frequented.  Columbus likewise reduced Cuba into order, and took measures for its colonization, where he placed one Diego Velasques as his lieutenant, who had accompanied his father in his second voyage of discovery.

In April 1511, Alphonso de Albuquerque went to Malacca from Cochin; and finding certain Chinese about to return from Malacca into their own country, he sent a Portuguese along with them, named Duarte Fernandes, with letters for the king of the Mantias, now called Siam.  They passed through the Straits of Cincapura, and sailed northwards along the coast of Patane to the city of Cuy, and thence to Odia, the chief city of the kingdom, in 14 deg.  N.[22].  The king of this country received Duarte with great honour, as he was the first Portuguese who had been in these parts, and sent back ambassadors along with him to Albuquerque.  They travelled overland to the westwards, till they came to Tanacerim, on the Bay of Bengal,