They Therefore Resolved Immediately To
Have These Straits Completely Explored And Discovered, By Means Of Ships
Fitted Out In Peru.
For this purpose, Don Pedro Sarmiento, who was
thought the best seaman in the Spanish service, was sent from Lima, and
actually passed from the South Sea into the Atlantic, and thence to
Spain.
He there proposed to plant a colony in the straits, and to
fortify them in such a manner as might prevent all other nations from
passing through them. This project was so well relished by Philip II
that a fleet of twenty-three ships was fitted out, with 3,500 men, under
the command of Don Diego Floris de Valdez; and Sarmiento, with 500
veterans, was appointed to form a settlement in the straits.
This fleet was extremely unfortunate, insomuch that it was between two
and three years before Sarmiento arrived with his people in the straits
of Magellan. On the north side, and near the eastern entrance, he built
a town and fort, which he named Nombre de Jesus, and in which he left a
garrison of 150 men. Fifteen leagues farther on, at the narrowest part
of the straits, and in lat. 53 deg. 18' S.[39] he established his principal
settlement, which he named Ciudad del Rey Felippe, or the City of King
Philip. This was a regularly fortified square fortress, having four
bastions; and is said to have been in all respects one of the
best-contrived settlements ever made by the Spaniards in America.
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