This is a chronology and timeline of the colonization of North America, with founding dates of selected European settlements. See also European colonization of the Americas. Before Columbus 986: Norsemen settle Greenland and Bjarni Herjólfsson sights coast of North America, but doesn't land (see also Norse colonization of the Americas). : Norse settle briefly in L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. : Norse colony in Greenland dies out. 1473: João Vaz Corte-Real perhaps reaches Newfoundland; writes about the "Land of Cod fish" in his journal. The claims of this discovery remain entirely speculative. Late fifteenth century 1492: Columbus sets sail aboard the Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria. 1492: Columbus reaches the Bahamas, Cuba and Hispaniola. 1492: La Navidad is established on the island of Hispaniola; it was destroyed by the following year. 1493: The colony of La Isabela is established on the island of Hispaniola. 1493: Columbus arrives in Puerto Rico 1494: Columbus arrives in Jamaica. 1496: Santo Domingo, the first European permanent settlement, is built. 1497: John Cabot reaches Newfoundland. 1498: In his third voyage, Columbus reaches Trinidad and Tobago. 1498: La Isabela is abandoned by the Spanish. 1499: João Fernandes Lavrador maps Labrador and Newfoundland Sixteenth century 1501: Corte-Real brothers explore the coast of what is today the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador 1502: Columbus sails along the mainland coast south of Yucatán, and reaches present-day Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama 1503: Las Tortugas noted by Columbus in passage through the Western Caribbean present-day Cayman Islands 1508: Ponce de León founds Caparra on San Juan Bautista (now Puerto Rico) 1511: Conquest of Cuba begins 1513: Ponce de León in Florida 1515: Conquest of Cuba completed 1517: Francisco Hernández de Córdoba lands on the Yucatán Peninsula 1519: Founding of Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz (Veracruz) 1519: Founding of Panama City by Pedro Arias Dávila 1521: Hernán Cortés completes the conquest of the Aztec Empire. 1521: Juan Ponce de León tries and fails to settle in Florida. 1524: Pedro de Alvarado conquers present-day Guatemala and El Salvador. 1524: Giovanni da Verrazzano sails along most of the east coast. 1525: Estêvão Gomes enters Upper New York Bay 1526: Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón briefly establishes the failed settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in South Carolina, the first site of enslavement of Africans in North America and of the first slave rebellion. 1527: Fishermen are using the harbor at St.