 The archipelago was discovered on 22 November 1574, by the Spanish sailor Juan Fernández, who was sailing south between Callao and Valparaíso along a route which he also discovered, hundreds of miles west of the coast of Chile, which avoided the northerly Humboldt current.He called the islands Más Afuera, Más a Tierra, and Santa Clara.In the 17th and 18th centuries, the islands were used as a hideout for pirates and became the location of a penal colony.