Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa

Timeline

1. 1581–1584Strait of Magellan · Strait of MagellanIn 1581 Sarmiento submitted a plan for the strait's defense to Philip II; in 1582 he sailed south from Spain with a fleet, establishing colonial outposts such as Nueva Alcedia on both shores of the Strait of Magellan and building forts, intending to block the Pacific passage against English privateers; in 1584, short of supplies and facing indigenous resistance, he was forced to abandon the outposts and withdraw.
2. 1585–1590Madrid · MadridAfter the expedition's failure in 1584, Sarmiento returned to Europe; in the later 1580s in Madrid he compiled his navigational logs and colonial observations, writing works including the History of the Incas, systematically recording the peoples of the Americas and his Pacific expedition experiences, providing important documents for later study of 16th-century Spanish colonization and strait strategy.