<P> The Early Navigators practically have been to the entire Caribbean, from The Bahamas to Jamaica . Papiamento, one of the languages spoken in the islands, is a mixture of Portuguese, Spanish and African languages . </P> <P> Portuguese merchants have been trading in the West Indies . To such an extent, that, for instance, for the Portuguese town of Póvoa de Varzim, most of its seafarers dying abroad, most of the deaths occurred in the Route of the Antilles, in the West Indies . At the turn of the 17th century, with the union with Castile, the Spanish kings favored the free movement of the people, and other lands of the New World, such as Peru and the Gulf of Mexico, were open to the Portuguese merchants . </P> <P> The Portuguese founded the first Uruguayan city, Colónia do Sacramento . </P>

Which nation has the most influence on the colonization of latin america in the 1500s