Juan Ladrillero

In 1535, after having made eleven round voyages from Spain to the West Indies, he received a pilot's license from Sebastian Cabot.

[1] At end of 1557 the governor general of Chile, Don García Hurtado de Mendoza, placed Ladrillero in command of an expedition "to discover, explore and take formal possession of all the country from Valdivia south, and through the Strait of Magellan."

On 9 December, Ladrillero, in the San Luis, was separated from the other two vessels under Francisco de Cortés Hojea—who would explore the Chilean fjords and sounds to the southward independently (by themselves).

Ladrillero spent the month of January 1558 exploring the intricate coastline of southern Chile.

He spent less than a day in the South Atlantic before turning back, probably not reaching the western entrance before early March 1559.