PETER OF CORDOVA. - Born around 1482 in Cordova, he studied at Salamanca, where he entered the Order of the Dominicans. With the first members of his Order he landed in Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) in September 1510.
They soon began to defend the rights of the Indians, and matters nearly reached the point of sending the missionaries back to Spain, when Father P., summoned by the King for questioning, managed to regain the royal favor. First of all he obtained that no one should deal with the Indians in the places where Father P. would take up residence, without his consent, under penalty of losing half of his property (royal Cedula of June 2, 1513). In the autumn of 1513 Father P. sent three Dominicans into the province of Piritu on the Coast of Cumana on the mainland. Nevertheless, some Spanish slave traders entered the Dominican missionary territory: the Indians rebelled and two missionaries were slaughtered. P. of C. sent Father Antonio de Montesino to Spain in 1515; in Santo Domingo the latter met the licentiate Bartolomeo de Las Casas (v. LAS CASAS), and together they set out to protest against the system of the Encomiendas (Commendas). Before Father Antonio de Montesino's departure for Spain, P. attempted a new mission on the mainland with the Spanish Dominicans and the French Franciscans. In September-October 1515 P. of C. and his missionaries landed on the peninsula of Araya. The Franciscans chose the Indian village of Cumana as their field of work, the Dominicans that of Chirivichi. Spanish slave traders entered this territory as well, and the undertaking failed. It seems that P. made a third missionary attempt on the island of Margarita. He died in May 1521 (others say June 28, 1525) in Santo Domingo.
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Nicola Kowalsky