Nikolaus Federmann (, ) (c. 1505, Ulm – February 1542, Valladolid) was a German adventurer and conquistador in what is modern-day Venezuela and Colombia. He is a significant figure in the history of Klein-Venedig (1528–1546), the concession of Venezuela Province that Charles I of Spain granted to the Welser banking family and the foundation of Santafe de Bogotá. Life Nikolaus Federmann was born in Ulm (Baden-Württemberg) around 1505. In 1529, he was sent to Santo Domingo by the Welser family of Augsburg, who had signed an agreement to explore the territory of Venezuela. As an agent of the Welser family, Federmann took settlers and miners from Seville to Coro in Venezuela in 1529 and 1530. Upon his arrival the governor Ambrosius Ehinger appointed him as his deputy. On 30 July 1530 Federmann became responsible for the colony of "Little Venice" (Klein Venedig). Governor Ehinger temporarily handed over authority to Federmann, because he had to go Hispaniola for health reasons. Without the authorisation of the Real Audiencia of Santo Domingo, Federmann undertook an expedition in September 1530 in the northern river basin of the Orinoco, searching for the "South Sea" -the Pacific), with 110 foot soldiers, 16 mounted soldiers, and 100 natives. However, he did not achieve his goal to open a new trade route to Asia. On 17 March 1531 he returned to Coro with 5,565 pesos of gold. Because of the unauthorized expedition, Ehinger banished Federmann to Europe for a period of four years. When he returned to Augsburg, he wrote Indianische Historia. Ein schöne kurtzweilige Historia Niclaus Federmanns des Jüngern von Ulm erster raise (published in 1557). Expedition in La Guajira Leaving from Coro in Paraguaná, Federmann left for the present-day territory of La Guajira, in northernmost Colombia. One of his goals was to secure the pearls that can be found in the Caribbean waters at the coast, and one version of history has it that he founded Riohacha in 1535. However, Federmann did not secure native divers to search for pearls, and his mission to found a city he wanted to call "Ulma", after his place of birth Ulm, failed. Federmann returned to Coro after reaching Cabo de la Vela in February 1536 without having founded a settlement on the Caribbean coast of La Guajira. Foundation of Bogotá From Coro, he traveled along the eastern edges of the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, through the Llanos