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Archaeological investigations at a short-lived 16th-century Spanish settlement in southern Chile have uncovered a coin associated with its foundation.
In 1584, colonists led by veteran navigator Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa established a fort called Ciudad Rey Don Felipe beside the Strait of Magellan as part of the Spanish Crown’s effort to control this important passage between the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The endeavour was not a success. Within just a few years, most of the settlement’s c.350 inhabitants had died of starvation, disease, and extreme cold. In 1587, an English crew reported that Rey Don Felipe was in ruins, with only a few survivors, and renamed the failed colony ‘Port Famine’ (Puerto del Hambre).
Recent archaeological investigations at the site have used metal-detectors and geolocation instruments, as well as the writings of Sarmiento de Gamboa, to determine where to excavate. In 2019, archaeologists located two bronze cannons thanks to these records. The latest find is even more remarkable: a silver eight-real coin with a Jerusalem Cross on one side and the coat of arms of King Philip II of Spain on the other. The coin was discovered in situ in the foundations of Rey Don Felipe’s first church. Its location corresponds exactly to Sarmiento de Gamboa’s writings, in which he documents placing the coin on top of the cornerstone during a ceremony marking the founding of the town on 25 March 1584.
The discovery of this coin validates historical records and a map of the colony believed to have been made by Sarmiento de Gamboa, and it is hoped that further research will be able to verify the locations of other structures at Rey Don Felipe. Future investigations will also uncover more information about the decline of this ill-fated settlement, as well as the lives of both colonists and Indigenous people in Patagonia.
Text: Amy Brunskill / Image: Richard Bezzaza, Simón Urbina
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