Everything about Pedro Sarmiento De Gamboa totally explained
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (
1532 -
1592) was a
Galician explorer, author, historian, astronomer, scientist, and humanist. Sarmiento was born in
Pontevedra in
Galicia,
Spain. His father
Bartolomé Sarmiento was born in Pontevedra and his mother
María Gamboa was born in Bilbao in Basque Country.
At the age of 18, Sarmiento de Gamboa entered the royal military in the European wars. Between 1550 and 1555 the future navigator fought in the armies of
Emperor Charles V. In 1555 he began his exploring career, sailing across the
Atlantic Ocean. His first destination was what is today
Mexico, where he lived for two years. Little is known of this period in his life, other than that he encountered difficulties with the
Inquisition. He then sailed to
Peru, where he lived for more than twenty years.
In Lima he was accused by the
Inquisition of possessing two magic rings and some magic ink and of following the precepts of Moses.
He then joined
Álvaro de Mendaña expedition through the Southern Pacific Ocean to find the
Terra Australis Incognita, which, should Mendaña followed Sarmiento's indications, had reached
New Zealand or/and
Australia; but they discovered the
Solomon Islands instead, in 1568.
In order to take credit of the discoveries for himself Mendaña threw the journals and maps made by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa overboard and abandoned him in
Mexico. A trial was then held in
Lima, with the result giving Sarmiento credit for the discoveries.
In 1572 he was commissioned by
Francisco de Toledo, the fifth
Viceroy of Peru, to write a history of the
Incas. Toledo hoped such a history would justify Spanish colonisation by revealing the violent history of the Incas. Sarmiento collected oral accounts first hand from Inca informants and produced a history that chronicles their violent conquest of the region. In his final history, he claimed that the origin inhabitants of Peru are descended from the mythical island of
Atlantis.
Historia de los Incas was then presented to King Phillip II with a covering letter dated March 1st 1572.
He became the commander of the naval station in the Pacific in 1578, when Sir
Francis Drake attacked the coasts of Peru and Mexico. He sailed out of the port of
Callao with eleven vessels in 1579 to capture Drake. He didn't found Drake, who had gone westward through the Pacific Ocean, but he explored the southern pacific coast of South America, passed the
Magellan Strait from West to East for the first time, drawing precious maps of many points of the Strait, and, after an impressive sailing of the Atlantic Ocean from SouthWest to NorthEast, a first-time too, he reached Spain in late 1580.
On his reporting the results of his expedition to King
Philip II of Spain, the latter resolved to fortify the Strait, and in 1581 sent an expedition of twenty-four vessels with 2,500 men from
Cadiz, under the command of Sarmiento de Gamboa and
Diego Flores Valdez. The expedition was unfortunate, as eight vessels were lost in a storm, and Flores, on account of rivalry with Sarmiento de Gamboa, abandoned him with twelve vessels in the entry of the strait and returned to Spain. With only four vessels, Sarmiento de Gamboa continued the voyage, arriving in January 1583 at a favorable point, where he established a fort and colony garrisoned by 300 men which he called
Rey Don Felipe. The settlement failed shortly after he left, and when
Thomas Cavendish visited the ruins in 1587 he renamed the place
Port Famine.
In 1584 Sarmiento de Gamboa sailed for Europe, but he was captured by an English fleet under to Sir
Walter Raleigh and carried to
England where he was presented to Queen
Elizabeth I of England. They had a conversation in Latin, which was their only common language. She gave him a "letter of Peace" to be carried to King Phillip II of Spain. He left England and on his way back to Spain he was captured by French
Huguenots. He was kept prisoner until 1588. During that time Spain mounted the Spanish Armada and attacked the English fleet. If Queen Elizabeth's "Letter of Peace" had been delivered in time to Spain, there might not have been a war. Meanwhile his colony dissolved and gradually perished of starvation; one of the survivors was rescued by Cavendish's fleet in 1587, and another by Meriche in 1589. After his liberation, Sarmiento de Gamboa made a representation of his experience and a complaint against Flores to King Philip II; it seems that his complaint was neglected.
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa spent the rest of his life dedicating himself to his writings and worked as an editor of poetry. On his last naval mission in the service of the king he was made Admiral of an armada of galleons en route to the Indies. He died on board ship, near the coast of Lisbon.
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