The name of the country may be derived from Birú, the name of a local ruler who lived near the Bay of San Miguel, Panama city, in the early 16th century.[18] When his possessions were visited by Spanish explorers in 1522, they were the southernmost part of the New World yet known to Europeans.[19] Thus, when Francisco Pizarro explored the regions farther south, they came to be designated Birú or Perú. An alternative history is provided by the contemporary writer Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, son of an Inca princess and aa conquistador. He said the name Birú was that of a common Indian happened upon by the crew of a ship on an exploratory mission for governor Pedro Arias de Ávila, and went on to relate more instances of misunderstandings due to the lack of a common language. The Spanish Crown gave the name legal status with the 1529 Capitulación de Toledo, which designated the newly encountered Inca Empire as the province of Peru.[22] Under Spanish rule, the country adopted the denomination Viceroyalty of Peru, which became Republic of Peru after independence.