Year 1580 - The Tale of Two Cities / Puerto del Hambre

Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

PEDRO SARMIENTO DE GAMBOA

The Viceroy of Peru, Francisco Toledo, decided to vigorously combat the English privateers who were attacking the American coasts and sent an expedition to the Strait of Magellan to stop them and study the possibility of fortifying its coasts, preventing their passage. The fleet, composed of two ships, was under the command of Captain Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa , who left for the south in 1580.

Sarmiento did not find the corsairs, but continued his voyage, carrying out a hydrographic survey of the southern channels from the Gulf of Trinidad to the Strait. The accompanying ship turned back north, leaving him alone. He continued tenaciously, reaching Punta Santa Ana, staying for a while near the river he named San Juan de La Posesión. From there he continued on to Spain, to meet with King Philip II, to whom he proposed fortifying the strait and founding two cities.

In 1582, a fleet of 19 ships with 3,000 sailors , settlers and soldiers set out from Spain. After great hardships , only three ships reached the Strait. One returned to Spain, the other was shipwrecked and the third remained here to found two cities, which were called Nombre de Jesús and Rey Don Felipe . The first was located at the eastern exit of the Strait and the second next to Punta Santa Ana. Sarmiento's colonization attempt ended in failure and the cities disappeared.

At the beginning of 1584, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa's expedition arrived at the Strait of Magellan. The people disembarked near Cape Vírgenes, where the first city called "Nombre de Jesús" was founded.

He had only one ship left, the "Santa María de Castro" and the wrecked hull of the "Trinidad", whose wood they used to build houses. He was accompanied by 338 people, including soldiers, sailors and settlers.

*** INFORMATION: Check out Sarmiento's Lost Cities on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA4XgiP9Zmk

Sarmiento de Gamboa saw that this region was not favorable for settlement, due to the scarcity of firewood and water. He therefore decided to explore Punta Santa Ana, where he had been on his previous voyage. He sent fifty people by sea, in the ship, under the command of his nephew Juan Juárez, and he went by land, with one hundred men. On the way they had their encounters with Indians and suffered hunger and privations for fifteen days. Finally they reached Punta Santa Ana, and in a cove, further north, called San Blas Bay, they founded a new city called Rey Felipe.

A few days later, Pedro Sarmiento set out again to look for more people in the first city, but bad weather prevented him from anchoring and he had to go out to sea to weather the storm. In the ocean he was captured by English privateers and was held prisoner for several years.

Meanwhile, the Strait settlers were left alone and abandoned, without food. Desperate, they gathered in the city of King Feline, built two ships and tried to continue north, but failed. Thus they died, starved and sick.

In 1586, the English privateer Thomas Cavendish picked up a survivor named Tomé Hernández, who told him this tragic story. As they passed through King Philip's city, they found only ruins and dead people. The privateer named it "Puerto del Hambre".

*** INFORMATION. Check this record of PUERTO DEL HAMBRE in the following YouTube link : https://youtu.be/oiIC0fiWhrw

*** INFORMATION. Check out the life of Sarmiento de Gamboa in this YouTube recording Click Link https://youtu.be/skXewGHeoOE