Galapagos Islands history
 The
Galapagos were discovered by chance in
March 10, 1535 when Fray Tomas de Berlanga, the Bishop of Panama,
sailed to Peru to settle a dispute between Francisco Pizarro and his
lieutenants after the conquest of the Incas. The bishop's ship stalled
when the winds died and strong currents carried him out to the
Galapagos. In his account of the adventure, addressed to Emperor
Carlos V, Berlanga described the harsh, desert-like condition of the
islands and their trademark giant tortoises. He wrote about the marine
iguanas, the sea lions and the many types of birds. He also noted the
remarkable tameness of the animals that continues to thrill and
delight modern visitors.
The islands were uninhabited, although Thor Heyerdahl in 1963 reported
findings of pottery of South American origin that suggested earlier
contacts, a theory that appears to still be controversial. The
archipelago was used as hiding place by the English pirates that
pilfered the Spanish galleons carrying gold and silver from South
America to Spain. The islands first appeared on maps in about 1570 in
those drawn by Abraham Ortelius and Mercator. The islands were called
"Insulae de los Galopegos" (Islands of the Tortoises).
The first English to
visit Galapagos was Richard Hawkins, in 1593. From that time until
1816 many famous pirates visited the archipelago. The man after who's
adventures in Juan Fernandez Islands inspired Daniel Defoe to write
Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, visited the Galapagos in 1708
after he was picked up from Juan Fernandez by the privateer Woodes
Rogers, while Rogers was refitting his ships in the islands after
sacking Guayaquil. The first
scientific mission to the Galapagos arrived in 1790 under the
leadership of Alessandro Malaspina, a Sicilian captain whose
expedition was sponsored by the King of Spain. However, the records of
the expedition were lost.
 In
1793, James Collnet made a description of the flora and fauna of
Galapagos and suggested that the islands could be used as base for the
whalers operating in the Pacific Ocean. He also draw the first
accurate navigation charts of the islands. Whalers killed and captured
thousands of the Galapagos
tortoises to extract their fat. The tortoises could also be kept
on board ship as a means of providing of fresh protein as these
animals could survive for several months on board without any food or
water. The hunting of the tortoises was responsible for greatly
diminishing and in some cases eliminating certain races. Along with
whalers came the fur-seal hunters who brought the population of this
animal close to extinction. Ecuador annexed the Galapagos Islands on
February 12, 1832, naming it Archipelago of Ecuador. This was a new
name that added-up to several names that had been, and are still, used
to refer to the archipelago. The first governor of Galapagos, General
José de Villamil, brought a group of convicts to populate the
Floreana Island and in October
1832 some artisans and farmers joined.
 Charles
Darwin was the first to make a scientific study of the islands. He was
a young student just out of university and was the naturalist on a
round-the-world scientific and geographical voyage on board the HMS
Beagle (1831 - 1836). Darwin reached the Galapagos on September 15
1835 and spent about five weeks, until October 20, studying the
geology and biology on four of the thirteen islands. It was here that
he began to develop his theories of evolution. Jose Valdizán and
Manuel Julian Cobos tried a new colonization, beginning the
exploitation of a type of lichen found in the islands (Roccella
portentosa) used as a coloring agent. After the assassination of
Valdizán by some of his workers, Cobos brought from the continent a
group of more than a hundred workers to San Cristobal island and tried
his luck at planting sugar cane. He ruled in his plantation with an
iron hand which lead to his assassination in 1904. Since 1897 Antonio
Gil began another plantations in Isabela island. During a whole year,
from September 1904, an expedition of the Academy of Sciences of
California, led by Rollo Beck, stayed in the Galapagos collecting
scientific material on geology, entomology, ornithology, botany,
zoology and herpetology. Another expedition from the same Academy was
done in 1932 (Templeton Crocker Expedition) to collect insects, fish,
shells, fossils, birds and plants. During WWII
Ecuador authorized the United
States to establish a naval base in
Baltra Island and radar stations in other strategic locations. In
1946 a penal colony was established in
Isabela Island, but was suspended in 1959.
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