In 1511, he left from Salvatierra de la Sabana with 300 men and three or four ships to the island of Cuba to conquer that island. He was the first governor of the island and he founded several cities, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Baracoa (the first European city in Cuba and its first capital) in 1511, San Salvador del Bayamo (1513), Santiago de Cuba in 1514 and Havana in 1515.