Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish adventurer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer. 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 .[1] His father Bartolomé Sarmiento was born in Pontevedra and his mother María Gamboa was born in Bilbao, Basque Country.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Sarmiento and the second or maternal family name is de Gamboa.Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
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.[2]
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, had Mendaña followed Sarmiento's indications, should have 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.[2]
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[edit]
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 travelled widely and interviewed numerous local leaders and lords, members of the royal Incan 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 artefacts and objects that Toledo had collected. However, due to a series of unusual events, this document of Inca history was relegated to obscurity for centuries.
Legacy[edit]
Due to his experiences Sarmiento became a byword for bad luck; Riesenberg tells us 'people would say, glibly, "So and so has the luck of Pedro de Sarmiento"'.[3]
Sarmiento de Gamboa is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of South American lizard, Liolaemus sarmientoi.[4]
A Spanish research vessel, BO Sarmiento de Gamboa, also carries his name.
Several geographic features in Chile bear the name of Pedro Sarminento de Gamboa: