Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
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Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532 - 1602) was a Spanish explorer, author, historian, astronomer, scientist, and humanist. Sarmiento was born in Pontevedra in Galicia. 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 accordance with the political military of the Austrian rule (King Carlos 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, of which little is known, 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 for possessing 2 magic rings, some magic ink and for following the precepts of Moses.
He discovered the Solomon Islands in 1568.
He became the commander of the naval station in the Pacific in 1578, when Sir Francis Drake attacked the coast of Peru and Mexico. He sailed out of the port of Callao with eleven vessels in 1579 to capture Drake, who had returned by the Cape of Good Hope; he explored the coast, and, after some encounters with the natives, returned to Spain in 1580. On his reporting the results of his expedition to Philip II, 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 Huguenot terrorists. 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 in 1602.