FOUR CENTURIES OF THE BROTHERS NODAL VOYAGE TO TIERRA DEL FUEGO (1618-1619
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Abstract
This article aims to reminisce what was the shortest and happiest of Spanish expeditions to the New World in its time, however, perhaps it has been the one most forgotten by posterity: the one that was put under the command of Captain Bartolomé García de Nodal and made by order of King Philip III with the order to verify the Dutch find of 1616 referred to a new passage for navigation between the seas of the North and South, and that occurred between 1618 and 1619. For this purpose a succinct relation on its antecedents, organization and the maritime trip itself, and some considerations about its results appreciated from different aspects are included. In particular, reference is made to the first circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego and the significance of its main geographical finding, such as the discovery of the Diego Ramírez Islands. This insular territory is the subject of a special assessment as an exceptional natural heritage due to its extreme geographical position on the southern edge of the american continental shelf.