Diego Hernández de Serpa
He and his brother, Ginés Hernández de Serpa, went in 1524 to the small island of Cubagua, off the coast of present-day Venezuela.Hernández accompanied Diego de Ordás in the Spanish expedition up the Orinoco River in 1530, searching for fabled El Dorado.In 1537, the crisis intensified in New Cadiz, and there was a discovery of oyster beds in the Cabo de La Vela, where the majority of colonists in Cubagua were sent.Hernández had spent forty-eight years in the Americas and demanded as a reward for his services to the Spanish crown that he be appointed governor of Paria and Cumaná.There was a quick suspension, due to lack of royal authorization and opposition from the colonial governor of Isla Margarita in the Caribbean Sea.