Juan de Bermúdez (; ; born , died ) was a Spanish

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

of the 16th century, and the namesake for the island country

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

Early life

Juan Bermúdez was born in

Palos de la Frontera Palos de la Frontera () is a town and Municipalities of Spain, municipality located in the southwestern Spain, Spanish province of Huelva (province), Huelva, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is situated some from the provincial capi ...

Province of Huelva Huelva () is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by Portugal, the provinces of Badajoz, Seville, and Cádiz, and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital is Huelva. Its area is ...

Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Kingdom of Castile, Castile and Kingd ...

Voyages

In 1503, while sailing back to

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

from a provisioning voyage to

Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...

in the ship ''La Garça'', he discovered

(historically rendered by various authors as ''la Bermuda'' (''Peter Martyr d'Anghiera'' on his map of 1511), ''Barmvdas'' or ''Bermudas'' (''Sylvester Jordain'' in ''A DISCOVERY OF THE BARMVDAS, OTHERWISE called the Ile of DIVELS'', London, 1610), ''Bermoodos'' (''John Jacob Berlu'' in ''The Treasury of Drugs Unlock'd'', London, 1690), ''Bermoothes'' (

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, borrowing the name for a fictional island in his 1611 play

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

), ''Bermudes'' (Henry Chatelain in the 1720 edition of his ''Atlas Historique'', Bellin of Paris in his map of 1764, and various others) which was later named after him. '' Legatio Babylonica'', published in 1511 by

Peter Martyr d'Anghiera Peter Martyr d'Anghiera ( or ''ab Angleria''; ; ; 2 February 1457 – October 1526), formerly known in English as Peter Martyr of Angleria,D'Anghiera, Peter Martyr. ''De Orbe Novo'' . Trans. Richard Eden a''The decades of the newe wo ...

, lists "La Bermuda" among the Atlantic islands. In 1515 he returned to Bermuda, landing a dozen pigs and sows for any unlucky mariners who might later be castaway there. Bermúdez made 11 registered trips to the New World from 1495 to 1519.

References

15th-century births 1570 deaths Year of birth unknown Spanish explorers of North America Spanish maritime navigators People from Palos de la Frontera {{explorer-stub