Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, born in Pontevedra in Galicia, had at then age of eighteen entered the royal military in the European wars, fighting in the armies of Emperor Charles V between 1550 and 1555, after which service he had begun his exploring career, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean.

His first destination was Mexico, where he lived for two years.

Little is known of this period in his life, other than that he had encountered difficulties with the Inquisition.

He then sailed to Peru, where he is to live for more than twenty years.

In Lima, he is accused by the Inquisition of possessing two magic rings and some magic ink and of following the precepts of Moses.

Sarmiento de Gamboa is thirty-five in 1567, when he sails from Callao with Spanish navigator Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira, nephew of Lope García de Castro, viceroy of Peru, on an expedition to the South Pacific in search of the legendary Terra Australis.

The expedition’s two ships are Los Reyes and Todos Santos; Sarmiento de Gamboa is the "Master of the Route."