Columbus embarked on his second voyage to the West Indies in 1493 with 17 ships and over 1,000 men. He discovered several Lesser Antilles islands and arrived in Puerto Rico on November 19th, 1493, naming it San Juan Bautista. The Spanish were interested in the gold in Puerto Rico's rivers and converting the native Taíno to Catholicism. They forced the Taíno to work as slaves extracting gold and taking them to Spain. The Taíno were soon dominated and Puerto Rico was colonized by the Spanish.