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Rodrigo de Bastidas inadvertently discovered Panama in 1501 while sailing from Venezuela in search of gold. He was the first European to explore the Isthmus of Panama. A year later Christopher Columbus himself visited Bocas del Toro, Veragua, the Chagres River and Porto Belo. In 1509 Alonso de Ojeda and Diego de Nicuesa were given the go-ahead to colonize territories between the west-side of the Gulf of Uraba to Cabo Gracias a Dios in modern-day Honduras. The first settlement in Panama was La Guardia. Founded in 1510, the city was later renamed Santa Maria la Antigua del Darien and became part of a province governed by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. Balboa, who waged war against the natives, was executed in 1519.