Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (Alcalá de Henares, Corona de España, e/ 1530 y 1532 - océano Atlántico de la costa de Lisboa, Reino de Portugal de la Monarquía Hispánica, 17 de julio de 1592) era un marino, cosmógrafo, matemático, escritor, soldado, historiador, filólogo, astrónomo, científico, humanista, explorador y conquistador español del siglo XVI, que fuera nombrado por el rey Felipe II como gobernador y capitán general de las Tierras del Estrecho de Magallanes a finales de 1580.

En el año 1584 fundó las primeras poblaciones de su incipiente gobernación —las ciudades del Nombre de Jesús y del Rey Felipe— pero sus habitantes irían pereciendo de hambre por la escasez de alimentos y las condiciones climáticas extremas. El último sobreviviente de este último poblado que internacionalmente había sido rebautizado como Puerto del Hambre, fue rescatado a principios de 1590 por la nave inglesa The Delight'.

Su lugar de nacimiento es incierto aunque en uno de los juicios que le siguió la Inquisición en Perú declaró haber nacido en Alcalá de Henares hacia 1532, otros biógrafos sostienen que fue Pontevedra, Galicia, de donde era su familia paterna. Tampoco se sabe con certeza el año de su nacimiento, pero se supone que fue entre 1530 y 1532.

Siendo hijo de Bartolomé Sarmiento, natural de Pontevedra, y de María de Gamboa, natural de Bilbao. Algunos historiadores creen que esta declaración de haber nacido en Alcalá de Henares pudo ocurrir durante un viaje circunstancial de sus padres, pues Sarmiento vivió su niñez y juventud en Pontevedra.

Hasta los dieciocho años vivió en la casa paterna, en la pintoresca ría gallega, edad a la que ingresó al servicio militar. Entre 1550 y 1555 estuvo en el ejército al servicio del emperador Carlos I de España. En 1555 cruzó el océano Atlántico y llegó a México donde vivió durante dos años. Poco se sabe de su vida durante este período excepto que tuvo problemas con la Inquisición. El proceso surgió a raíz de una parodia de Auto de Fe, organizada por Sarmiento en favor de los sobrinos del Obispo de Tlaxcala; de resultas del mismo fue sentenciado a azotes en la plaza de Puebla y, probablemente, al destierro.

De ahí pasó a Perú donde vivió durante más de veinte años.Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (Alcalá de Henares, 1532 - Lisboa, 1592) Navegante español. En 1555 llegó a América, donde sufrió dos procesos inquisitoriales por sus actividades científicas y astrológicas. En 1557 participó con Álvaro de Mundaña (1567-1579) en una expedición desde Perú hasta el Sur del Pacífico, y escribió una Historia de los incas (1579). Obtuvo permiso y ayuda de Felipe II para fortificar el estrecho de Magallanes. Gobernador del estrecho (1581), fundó las ciudades de Nombre de Jesús y Rey don Felipe. De regreso a España fue apresado por los ingleses (1586). Tras ser liberado, cayó en poder de los hugonotes que exigieron rescate. En 1592 emprendió con una escuadra un viaje a Nueva España, pero, gravemente enfermo, fue llevado a Lisboa, donde falleció el 17 de julio de 1592. https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Sarmiento_de_Gamboa

LA FOTO EN VERDE CORRESPONDE A LA PLACA RECORDATORIA UBICADA EN LA ZONA AUSTRAL DE CHILE AL SUR DE PUNTA ARENAS DONDE SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA CONSTRUYO LA IGLESIA DE LA ANUNCIACION EN 1584. EL LUGAR SIRVIO TAMBIEN COMO CEMENTERIO EN EL LUGAR CONOCIDO COMO PURTO DEL HAMBRE.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Sarmiento_de_Gamboa

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, mathematician, astronomer, and scientist. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated, or Alcalá de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied . His father Bartolomé Sarmiento was born in Pontevedra and his mother María Gamboa was born in Bilbao, Basque Country.

Biography

Early life

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 New Spain (in 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, gaining a reputation as a navigator.

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's 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. The expedition failed to find gold and attempts at establishing a settlement in the Solomon Islands ended in failure.

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. However, 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 (commonly titled The History of the Incas) that chronicles their violent conquest of the region.

The History of the Incas

Written in Cuzco, the capital of the Inca Empire, just forty years after the arrival of the first Spaniards in the city, Sarmiento's The History of the Incas contains extremely detailed descriptions of Inca history and mythology. The royal sponsorship of the work guaranteed Sarmiento direct access to the highest Spanish officials in Cuzco. It also allowed him to summon influential natives, as well as those who had witnessed the fall of the Inca Empire, so that they could relate their stories. Sarmiento traveled widely and interviewed numerous local leaders and lords, surviving members of the royal Inca families, and the few remaining Spanish conquistadors who still resided in Cuzco. Once the first draft of the history was completed, in an unprecedented effort to establish the unquestionable authenticity of the work, his manuscript was read, chapter by chapter, to forty-two indigenous authorities for their commentary and correction. After the public reading, which occurred on 29 February and 1 March 1572, the manuscript was entrusted to a member of the viceroy's personal guard. He was to take the manuscript to Spain and deliver it to King Philip II, along with four painted cloths showing the history of the Incas and a number of other artifacts and objects that Toledo had collected. However, due to a series of unusual events, this irreplaceable document of Inca history was relegated to obscurity for centuries.

Strait of Magellan

He became the commander of the naval station in the Pacific in 1578, when Sir Francis Drake attacked the coasts of Peru and Mexico. Sarmiento de Gamboa sailed out of the port of Callao with eleven vessels in 1579 to capture Drake. He did not find 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 second time, drawing precious maps of many points of the Strait, and, after an impressive sailing of the Atlantic Ocean from southwest to northeast, 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 lost eight vessels 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, and despite Spain's official policy of keeping all navigational information secret, shared his maps with British cartographers. Queen Elizabeth gave him a "Letter of Peace" to be carried to King Phillip II of Spain. However, on his way back to Spain he was captured by French Huguenots and 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.

Later life

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.

Legacy

Sarmiento de Gamboa is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of South American lizard, Liolaemus sarmientoi.