Bastidas, who prohibits his troops from brutally using the Indians or robbing them of their goods, trades for a substantial amount of gold on a trip to the interior and the territories of Bonda and Bondigua in present day Colombia.

His troops, many of whom have gone adventuring in the hopes of obtaining gold, ask Bastidas for a share.

He refused to share it with his men, saying that he needs it to help defray the costs of the colony.

Bastidas' refusal to share the gold that he had acquired greatly angers some of his men, among them his lieutenant Villafuerte, who leads a conspiracy of some fifty men to murder Bastidas.

One night while Bastidas is asleep he is attacked and stabbed five times.

He is able to cry out, and his men rush to his aid.

Although seriously wounded, he does not die immediately.

Owing to a lack of adequate medical facilities in Santa Marta, Bastidas attempts to sail to Santo Domingo, but bad weather forces him to land in Cuba, where he dies from his injuries.

Later, his only son, Archbishop Rodrigo de Bastidas y Rodriguez de Romera, will move his remains to Santo Domingo, where he is interred along with his wife and son (Bishop Bastidas) at The Cathedral of Santa María la Menor in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo, the oldest cathedral in the Americas.