Christopher Columbus
Since the late 20th century, historians have criticized Columbus for initiating colonization and for abuse of natives. Among reasons for this criticism is the poor treatment of the native Taíno people of Hispaniola, whose population declined rapidly after contact with the Spanish. Columbus required the natives to pay tribute in gold and cotton. Modern estimates for the pre-Columbian population of Hispaniola are around 250,000–300,000. According to the historian Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes, by 1548, 56 years after Columbus landed, and 42 years after he died, fewer than 500 Taíno were living on the island. The indigenous population declined rapidly, due primarily to the first pandemic of European endemic diseases, which struck Hispaniola after 1519. The natives had no acquired immunity to these new diseases and suffered high fatalities. There is also documentation that they were overworked.
Spanish conquest of Honduras
Cerezeda finally set out with his expedition to the interior but was forced to return when Díaz de Herrera attempted to abandon Trujillo, taking all the colonists with him. Trujillo was now at the point of collapse; the Spanish lacked essential provisions, and although more Spanish soldiers had come to Honduras than were needed to overthrow Peru, the bitter Spanish infighting had resulted in the almost complete collapse of the colony. Trujillo was the only Spanish settlement left in the territory, and possessed less than 200 Spanish inhabitants. The Spanish assaults upon the native population had wreaked havoc upon them, but failed to successfully conquer any territory outside the immediate environs of Trujillo. The native population level collapsed, with many Indians being sold as slaves to supply the workforce on the plantations of the Caribbean islands. In 1533, an epidemic swept through the natives within the reduced Spanish area of control, killing half their number. The "encomienda" system was dysfunctional in the colony, with little tribute, and no rich mines of silver or gold. Many colonists had heard of the riches to be had in Peru, and threatened to leave. By 1534, the only richly inhabited native region left was the Naco valley; in desperation, Cerezeda once again planned to move the colony west to Naco.