A SIXTEENTH-CENTURY NAVIGATOR.* THAT painstaking and excellent navigator, Pedro Sarmiento,
was born about 1532, in Galicia; this we learn from the archives of the Inquisition, with whom in after years Sarmiento had much to do. Entering the army at the age of eighteen, he served in Europe for a few years, and then went to seek his fortune in the Indies, where he attached himself, after a rambling life of voyages and researches into the history of the Incas, to the service of Viceroy the Conde de Nieva. Shortly after the murder of that Viceroy, in 1564, and about the time of the arrival of his successor, Lope Garcia de Castro, the Inquisition began their persecution of Sarmiento on some petty charge, and from thenceforth dogged the great navigator, as they have dogged some of the best and noblest sons of Spain, till old age and a partial obscurity placed him beyond their ken. Sarmiento was condemned to hear mass in the cathedral at Lima naked, with a candle in his hand; moreover, he was condemned to perpetual banishment. But the Pope, on appeal, commuted this sentence, and on this and on future occasions the Viceroy ignored the Inquisition, and gave them to understand that a great navigator was more useful to his country than an im- prisoned heretic. It was characteristic of the Inquisition that they should persecute a man of Sarmiento's vigorous and inquiring intellect, though he was a devout Catholic and in- tensely religions. In 1567 Sarmiento asked and obtained leave to undertake a voyage to those islands which he announced the Inca Yupangai had discovered in an expedition west- ward,—perhaps two of the Galapagos, says the editor. Un- fortunately, he stipulated for the conduct, but not the com- mand, of the expedition, and though the Solomon Group
• Narratives of the Voyages of Pedro Sarmiento de Gentb4a to the Strait. of gerllas. Translated and Edited by Clements B. C.B., F.B.S. HaMstrt Society.
was explored and named, differences arose, and the original design of Sarmiento was thwarted. The commander was a nephew of De Castro, obstinate, incapable, and even worse, and intended on landing to bring charges against Sarmiento. The navigator prudently waited till the new Viceroy, Toledo, appeared, when the justice of his cause was satisfactorily proved, and he became a trusted servant of the Viceroy. Now occurred that painful blot on Sarmiento's career that brought, says the editor, a perpetual curse on all the efforts, the hard-earned successes, and the hard life of the navigator. Toledo and he secured the young Inca, Topa° Amara, and executed him in the great square of Cuzco; an instance of that thirst for blood and ferocity of temper that has always cursed Spanish dominion, and which to-day sees the last of that vast Empire torn from her feeble grasp.
Not long after this murder and the sending home of an elaborate history of the Incas, Sarmiento again fell into the hands of the Inquisition, from whom he was released, to pursue Drake, and on his return from Panama, whither he had pursued that jolly buccaneer and fine seaman, he set to work on the magnum opus of his life,—the explore,. tion of the Straits of Magellan. Toledo wished him to fortify the Straits and intercept Drake, and the Government fitted out an expedition to fortify and to solonise the Straits. Again we note that Sarmiento took no command till the Straits were reached; he then became Governor of the forts and settlements in the Straits. He was thwarted in every possible manner by his officers, who were cowards and land. lubbers of the worst type.
The first translation is the account of Sarmiento's voyage from Callao to the Gulf of Trinidad, his three boat-voyages to explore the tortuous channels leading from the Gulf of Trinidad, and the subsequent voyage through the Strait. The thorough. ness with which Sarmiento noted the features, and in fact all those details which the survey of such a channel demanded, has received the admiration of all modern navigators. He noted even the peculiar colour of certain belts of snow on the mountains ; indeed, his feeling for colour must have been considerable. The passage had been made by Sarmiento in the Capitana ' alone, the Almirante,' with the admiral, whose name need not be remembered, having treacherously deserted on the conclusion of the exploration of the Gulf of Trinidad. Then Sarmiento set sail for Spain to acquaint his Sovereign with the possibilities of the new country which he had taken possession of for Spain.
The next report of the navigator is written at Rio de Janeiro on Jane let, 1583, and is a relation of the fitting out and the history of the fleet which Philip II. sent out to colonise and fortify the Strait Madre de Dios, formerly called the Strait of Magellan. Twenty-three ships made a gallant fleet, surely, but the fate against which in the two former expeditions Pedro Sarmiento had struggled with such courage and success, followed the brave sailor a third time. The fleet was entrusted to the command of an Asturian Knight of the Order of Santiago, a worse coward and traitor than either of his predecessors. It seems to have been the custom of Spain to give the command of a great undertaking to men who had not even the quality of courage, but why the Council of the Indies should not have selected a seaman, was known only to them and Sarmiento. There were reasons why Sarmiento should not take command himself, and be may have declined the honour ; but the probability is that the Council was composed of "civil lords." This folly in figure- heads sent another and a greater fleet to disaster; and strange to say, it was the Duke of Medina Sidonia who compelled the expedition to put to sea against the best advice, and in such bad weather that five vessels were lost at once. One wonders if Medina Sidonia remembered the portent seven years later. The "Asturian Knight," who had before plunged the preparations in hopeless confusion, by leaving Seville suddenly, and for days had refused to receive Sarmiento and his baggage, was incapable of giving any orders other than to throw the anchors overboard ! Yet another frigate was lost when the expedition was ready to sail from Cadiz, and Sarmiento tried to save her, greatly to the annoyance of this same Diego Flores, who once again took the opportunity to sail away while honest seamen were on shore saving life and stores. Sarmiento had to hire a brigantine to catch him up ; and all this the navigator relates in the sorrowful but hopeful tone of a brave and loyal man ; and surely his vaunt that he considered even that money well spent, was a noble one. On the voyage out a hundred and fifty died, and it is related that Diego Flores, when informed of the death of a settler, said " I wish they were all dead," and on Sarmiento arguing the advantages of settling new lands, he added, "I do not know with what title and right his Majesty can be called King of the Indies." Forthwith Sarmiento proceeded to give the substance of his history, and to prove once more the tyranny and usurpation of the Incas and the right of his Majesty to usurp in his turn, clinching the matter with the Papal Ball, which silenced Diego for the nonce. To the audience who probably listened to this learned argu- ment, it came as a pleasing break in a long ocean voyage ; but to us it has another interest, for we know that Sarmiento had the blood of the Inca Tupac on his hands, though, being a sixteenth-century Spaniard, he never gave another thought to the deed. From Rio de Janeiro, where the fleet wintered, only sixteen sailed to continue the venture, and always and everywhere the officers of the fleet, with Diego at their head, did their best to ruin the expedition, selling the tools of the new colony, and swindling right and left, and thwarting the man who had literally nursed them with his own hands at Rio de Janeiro. The Asturian Knight even proposed the assassination of Sarmiento, and his own friends were dis- gusted when he left his ship for a faster one, and neither hoisted his banner as General nor showed a light, so that if the dreaded English appeared he might not be recognised, and could the more easily take to flight. The Governor of Chili left the expedition with many soldiers for the River Plate, though his orders had been to go through the Straits ; thus, with losses and unseaworthy vessels, Sar- miento reached the mouth of the Strait with but two ships and three frigates, and after the first attempt to enter, Diego turned tail and sailed for Brazil. Sarmiento had, of course, to return ; and it was not till Diego had finally departed for Spain, that he once more set out for the Straits. But when he bad planted the flag and marked out the settlement, Nombre de Jesus, the other ships took to flight under cover of the dark ; and the navigator was once more left to his own resources. They had landed at the Cape of the Virgin, and Sarmiento, having arraiged everything needful for the settlement, sent the' Maria' on her voyage through the Strait, and himself followed across land with a hundred men to the point Santa Ana, at the western end of the Strait. The march was reckoned at a hundred leagues, we suppose, and the hardships fearful; and but for the in- domitable determination of Pedro Sarmiento none would ever have reached safety. Among the arquebusiers were, no doubt, worthy representatives of the finest soldiery in Europe; nevertheless, they crept away into the bushes to die, and gave way to despair; and even a stirring appeal to their pride, as Sarmiento recalled the glorious names of Pizarro and Cortes, failed to rouse them. What mattered it to starving men if Pizarro had drawn a line with his sword, and with the twelve who stepped across conquered a kingdom, or that Cortes, who burnt his boats, had won an empire ! But at last the advance party saw the boats, and the rest crawled down the beach, some on all fours, to the welcome faces. Then a new settlement was built, also a church and other buildings, musical and clerical, and a Franciscan monastery was traced out, and the whole was palisaded and defended by a bastion and guns on the sea•face. Sarmiento then left in the Maria' for the eastern settlement, but he had barely time to send ashore for materials he desired to take back to Don Felipe, when a tremendous storm blew him out to sea, and he was forced to make for San Vicente. He set to work to embark more stores for the Strait, but his ship was wrecked, and he himself, the last to leave his ship, was saved by two boards nailed together. Again did this brave and ever hopeful man embark from Rio, but after a good start, a storm more fearful than any other drove him back to that port. Then, though he did not relinquish his efforts, be could get no more supplies, and the vessel sent with flour to the Strait returned through stress of weather, at which " Pedro Sarmiento," says the report, for he always spoke of himself in the third person, " was ready to burst with rage." Finally, a mutiny— by no means the first, indeed—arose, and when that was quelled, Sarmiento, feeling that no more help could be got from Brazil, sailed for Spain, but was captured by the English, ill-treated, and conveyed to England. There, after a term of imprisonment, he was released, and Sir Walter Raleigh taking his part, he received favourable notice of Elizabeth, held a conversation with her in Latin, and received a passport to Spain. Again he was captured by a French officer, and was obliged to petition Philip for ransom. For some disrespectful words spoken of Philip, Sarmiento even challenged one of his captors,—such was the gallant and devoted nature of the man ! His end, after his return to Spain, and a subsequent expedition to the Philippine Islands, is uncertain, but no doubt he sank into obscurity. One does not know which to admire most in the man,—his dauntless courage and hope, or the admirable patience and dignity with which he bore desertions, mutinies, and countless insults from the herd of cowards whom he must have heartily despised. He had shown a cruel spirit, yet he never spared himself when the life of a countryman was in danger, and he had the tenderest consideration for the sick. He was a loyal- hearted gentleman, a born commander, and a navigator of the first rank, and had he had but a dozen of these stout hearts that " Francisco Drac, of low condition but a skilful seaman," could so easily obtain, the history of Spanish America would not be a closed book.
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