The chief pilot of Panamá, an experienced Genoese seaman named Juan Bautista Pastene, with Juan Calderon de la Barca, was ordered to undertake a voyage of discovery along the coast of Chili at about the same time. He sailed from Callao in July, 1544, and arrived at the port of Valparaiso in August, in his little vessel the “San Pablo.”
PASTENE.
[Fac-simile of part of a copperplate in Ovalle’s Hist. Rela. de Chile, Rome, 1648.—Ed.]
Here he was visited by Valdivia, who confirmed the name of Valparaiso and officially declared it to be the port of Santiago. Valdivia proclaimed the foundation of the town of Valparaiso on the 3d of September, 1544, and appointed Pastene his lieutenant in command of the Chilian seas. The two little vessels “San Pedro” and “Santiaguillo” then took some men-at-arms on board, and proceeded on a voyage of discovery to the southward on the 4th of September. Pastene went as far as 41° south, discovering a harbor which was named Valdivia, the mouths of several rivers, the island of Mocha and the Bay of Penco. He returned to Valparaiso on the 30th of September, and reported his success to the governor, who now had two hundred Spaniards at Santiago, besides women and children. In the same year Valdivia sent a captain named Bohan to found a town in the valley of Coquimbo, to serve as a refuge and resting-place on the road between Santiago and Peru. It was named La Serena, after the native place of Valdivia. The “San Pedro” was sent to Coquimbo to be caulked and otherwise repaired.
PIZARRO.
[Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera, vol. ii. p. 280. De Bry (part vi.) gives a small medallion likeness. Cf. Verne’s La Découverte de la Terre. Prescott (vol. i.) gives an engraving after a painting in the series of the line of the viceroys, preserved at that time in the viceregal palace at Lima. It gives the conqueror in civic costume, with cap and cloak, and a letter in one hand and a glove in the other. A colored representation of the royal standard borne by Pizarro is given in El General San Martin, Buenos Ayres, 1863. They continue to show, or did exhibit till recently, a body claimed to be that of Pizarro, in the cathedral at Lima. (Hutchinson’s Two Years in Peru, vol. i. p. 309.)—Ed.]