Diego Caballero

In early March 1517, due to the fact that his cousin, Hernando Caballero, was the Mayor of Santo Domingo, he got permission to emigrate to Hispaniola, along with his brother, Alonso.

He hired some of his fellow citizens, including his nephew, Francisco Caballero, whom he appointed to run the pearl fisheries at Cabo de la Vela.

Before that, Diego increased the size of his fleet of ships, opened further commercial sea routes, and launched new pearl fisheries in Cubagua, Cabo de la Vela, and Panama.

He also ordered for his employees to be given different food, plus a half pint of wine a day, shirts, shorts, shoes, and hammocks or straw beds so that they could sleep comfortably, and that they should lack nothing, so that God and man would be served.

[citation needed] Upon reaching old age, he decided to retire from commercial activity and, with the profits he had made from indigenous people, settled in Seville, where he dedicated himself to charity and the promotion of work that he considered to be good.

Every year, in compliance with a promise he had made, he visited the Sanctuary of Guadalupe in Extremadura to thank the Virgin for his current life and to pray for his family and the salvation of his soul.

Recalling his early enslavement of native groups and how he had taken their gold, he asked God to forgive him his sins; he also prayed for the souls of his pearl divers on 27 November 1560.