Historedia
AmericasEvent

Discovery of the Galápagos Islands

When
1535
Where
Route to Peru; Galápagos Islands
Episodes
2

In March 1535, Bishop Tomás de Berlanga, sailing to Peru to mediate a dispute between Pizarro and Almagro, was becalmed in the Doldrums. Strong currents carried his ship to the Galápagos Islands, marking their recorded European discovery on 10 March 1535.

Episodes

  1. 1535 · Route to PeruVoyage to Peru

    Bishop Berlanga sails to Peru in 1535 to mediate a territorial dispute between Pizarro and Almagro.

  2. 10 March 1535 · Galápagos IslandsDiscovery of the Galápagos

    Becalmed in the Doldrums, Berlanga's ship is carried by currents to the Galápagos Islands on 10 March 1535.

Background and detail

Voyage Context. Tomás de Berlanga, the fourth Bishop of Panamá, was appointed to the role in 1534. In 1535, he sailed to Peru with the specific objective of settling a territorial dispute between Francisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro following the conquest of the Inca Empire.

Accidental Discovery. During the voyage, Berlanga's ship stalled when winds died in the Doldrums. Strong currents subsequently carried the vessel out to the Galápagos Islands. This accidental drift resulted in the islands' discovery on 10 March 1535, with no firm evidence of prior Polynesian or Indigenous South American contact.

People involved

Sources

  1. Tomás de Berlanga Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-16
  2. Galápagos Islands Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-14

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.