Francisco de Hoces | |
---|---|
Born | Unknown |
Died | 1526 |
Nationality | Spanish |
Occupation(s) | Sailor, explorer |
Francisco de Hoces (died 1526) [1] was a Spanish sailor [2] [3] who in 1525 joined the Loaísa Expedition to the Spice Islands as commander of the vessel San Lesmes.
In January 1526, the San Lesmes was blown by a gale southwards from the eastern mouth of the Strait of Magellan to 56º S latitude, where the crew "thought they saw a land’s end".[ citation needed ] This is commonly understood as that they saw open waters westward away from a point of land that could be the southeasternmost tip of either Tierra del Fuego or Isla de los Estados. In either case, they supposedly had seen an open water connection between Atlantic and Pacific Oceans south of Tierra del Fuego, so they preceded Francis Drake in inferring the existence of such a connection. This is the reason some Spanish, Argentine, and Chilean historians maintain that Drake Passage should be named Mar de Hoces. [4]
After the Loaisa Expedition reached the Pacific through the Strait of Magellan, the whole fleet was dispersed by another gale, and the San Lesmes was seen for the last time in late May 1526. The final fate of San Lesmes has been the subject of much speculation, based in some 16th-century European traces later found in different places around the South Pacific, which suggest she could have reached Easter Island, any of the Polynesian archipelagos, or even New Zealand. Any of these cases would represent the first European landing in the Polynesian Triangle, preceding confirmed European landings in this region by several decades. Australian writer Robert Langdon has been the most prominent supporter of these theories in his books The Lost Caravel and The Lost Caravel Re-explored. [5]
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan.
Isla de los Estados is an Argentine island that lies 29 kilometres (18 mi) off the eastern extremity of Tierra del Fuego, from which it is separated by the Le Maire Strait. It was named after the Netherlands States-General, the Dutch parliament.
Juan Sebastián Elcano was a Spanish navigator, ship-owner and explorer of Basque origin from Getaria, part of the Crown of Castile when he was born, best known for having completed the first circumnavigation of the Earth in the Spanish ship Victoria on the Magellan expedition to the Spice Islands. He received recognition for his achievement by Charles I of Spain with a coat of arms bearing a globe and the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me.
The Strait of Magellan, also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The strait is approximately 570 km long and 2 km wide at its narrowest point. In 1520, the Spanish expedition of the Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan, after whom the strait is named, became the first Europeans to discover it.
Beagle Channel is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina. The channel separates the larger main island of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from various smaller islands including the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva; Navarino; Hoste; Londonderry; and Stewart. The channel's eastern area forms part of the border between Chile and Argentina and the western area is entirely within Chile.
The Loaísa expedition was an early 16th-century Spanish voyage of discovery to the Pacific Ocean, commanded by García Jofre de Loaísa and ordered by King Charles I of Spain to colonize the Spice Islands in the East Indies. The seven-ship fleet sailed from La Coruña, Spain in July 1525 and became the second naval expedition in history to cross the Pacific Ocean, after the Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation. The expedition resulted in the discovery of the Sea of Hoces south of Cape Horn, and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific. One ship ultimately arrived in the Spice Islands in September 1526.
The General Captaincy of Chile, Governorate of Chile, or Kingdom of Chile, was a territory of the Spanish Empire from 1541 to 1818 that was, initially, part of the Viceroyalty of Peru. It comprised most of modern-day Chile and southern parts of Argentina in the Patagonia region. Its capital was Santiago de Chile. In 1810 it declared itself independent, with the Spanish reconquering the territory in 1814, but in 1818 it gained independence as the Republic of Chile. It had a number of Spanish governors over its long history and several kings.
Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, also known as Puerto del Hambre, is a historic settlement site at Buena Bay on the north shore of the Strait of Magellan approximately 58 km (36 mi) south of Punta Arenas in the Región de Magallanes y la Antártica Chilena, Patagonia, Chile.
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America, Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
The García de Nodal expedition was chartered in 1619 by King Philip III of Spain to reconnoiter the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, rounding Cape Horn, south of Tierra del Fuego, just discovered by the Dutch merchants Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten. It was a successful expedition, as all goals were reached. In addition, neither lives nor ships were lost and the whole was done in a small amount of time.
Amanu, Timanu, or Karere, is an atoll in the Tuamotu archipelago. Amanu lies at right angles to neighbouring Hao Atoll; this orientation is quite rare for the Tuamotu atolls.
Farthest South refers to the most southerly latitudes reached by explorers before the first successful expedition to the South Pole in 1911.
The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Argentina and Chile was signed on 23 July 1881 in Buenos Aires by Bernardo de Irigoyen, for Argentina, and Francisco de Borja Echeverría, for Chile, with the aim of establishing a precise border between the two countries based on the uti possidetis juris principle. Despite dividing largely unexplored lands, the treaty laid the groundwork for nearly all of Chile's and Argentina's 5600 km current border.
The southern coast of Chile presents a large number of fjords and fjord-like channels from the latitudes of Cape Horn to Reloncaví Estuary. Some fjords and channels are important navigable channels providing access to ports like Punta Arenas, Puerto Chacabuco and Puerto Natales.
Early Polynesian explorers reached nearly all Pacific islands by 1200 CE, followed by Asian navigation in Southeast Asia and the West Pacific. During the Middle Ages, Muslim traders linked the Middle East and East Africa to the Asian Pacific coasts, reaching southern China and much of the Malay Archipelago. Direct European contact with the Pacific began in 1512, with the Portuguese encountering its western edges, soon followed by the Spanish arriving from the American coast.
Robert Langdon (1924–2003) was an Australian scholar known for his work as the executive officer of the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, a part of the Australian National University.
Diego Ramírez de Arellano was a Spanish sailor and cosmographer. He achieved fame for piloting the Garcia de Nodal expedition to the region of the Strait of Magellan. The expedition discovered the Diego Ramírez Islands, the most southerly point visited by Europeans until the discovery of the South Sandwich Islands by Captain James Cook in 1775.
New Zealand–Spain relations are the bilateral relations between New Zealand and Spain. Both nations are members of the OECD and the UN.
Diplomatic relations exist between Australia and Spain. In the 2016 Australian Census, 120,952 Australian residents claimed Spanish descent, while 15,391 indicated they were born in Spain. Both nations are members of the OECD.
In the late 16th century, the Spanish Empire attempted to settle the Strait of Magellan with the aim of controlling the only known passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at the time. The project was a direct response to Francis Drake's unexpected entry into the Pacific through the strait in 1578 and the subsequent havoc his men wreaked upon the Pacific coast of Spanish America. The colonization effort took the form of a naval expedition led by veteran explorer Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, which set sail from Cádiz in December 1581. The expedition established two short-lived settlements in the strait, Nombre de Jesús and Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe. However, the settlers proved poorly prepared for the cool and windy environment of the strait, and starvation and disease was soon rampant. A resupply expedition organized by Sarmiento in Rio de Janeiro in 1585 was unable to reach the strait due to unfavorable weather. Aid to the struggling colony was later hampered by Sarmiento falling prisoner to English corsairs in 1586 and the unresponsivity of King Philip II, likely due to the strain of Spain's resources caused by the wars with England and Dutch rebels. The last known survivor was rescued by a passing ship in 1590.