Patagonia

Patagonia is that portion of South America which, to the east of the Andes, lies south of the Neuquén and Río Colorado rivers, and, to the west of the Andes, south of (42°S). The Chilean portion embraces the southern part of the region of Los Lagos, and the regions of Aysen and Magallanes (excluding the portion of Antarctica claimed by Chile). East of the Andes the Argentine portion of Patagonia includes the provinces of Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz, and Tierra del Fuego, as well as the southern tip of the Buenos Aires Province.

History

First human settlement

Human habitation of the region dates back thousands of years, with some early archaeological findings in the southern part of the area dated to the 10th millennium BCE, although later dates of around the 8th millennium BCE are more securely recognised. The region seems to have been inhabited continuously since that time, by various cultures and alternating waves of migration, the details of which are as yet poorly understood.

Related Topics:
10th millennium BCE - 8th millennium BCE

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The indigenous peoples of the region included the Tehuelches, whose numbers and society however were soon to be greatly reduced to the point of near extinction not long after the first contacts with Europeans.

Related Topics:
Indigenous peoples - Tehuelche

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Early European accounts- 16th-17th centuries

The region of Patagonia was to be first noted in European accounts in 1520 by the expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, who on his passage along the coast named many of the more striking features -- Gulf of San Matias, Cape of 11,000 Virgins (now simply Cape Virgenes), &c. However, it is also possible that earlier navigators such as Amerigo Vespucci had reached the area (his own account of 1502 has it that he reached its latitudes), however his failure to accurately describe the main geographical features of the region such as the Rio de la Plata casts some doubt on whether he really did so.

Related Topics:
1520 - Ferdinand Magellan - Amerigo Vespucci - 1502 - Rio de la Plata

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Rodrigo de Isla, despatched inland in 1535 from San Matias by Alcazava Sotomayor (on whom western Patagonia had been conferred by the king of Spain), was the first European to traverse the great Patagonian plain, and, but for the mutiny of his men, he may have been able to strike across the Andes to reach the Chilean side.

Related Topics:
Rodrigo de Isla - 1535 - Alcazava Sotomayor

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Pedro de Mendoza, on whom the country was next bestowed, lived to found Buenos Aires, but not to carry his explorations to the south. Alonzo de Camargo (1539), Juan Ladrilleros (1557) and Hurtado de Mendoza (1558) helped to make known the western coasts, and Sir Francis Drake's voyage in 1577 down the eastern coast through the strait and northward by Chile and Peru was memorable for several reasons; but the geography of Patagonia owes more to Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1579–1580), who, devoting himself especially to the south-west region, made careful and accurate surveys. The settlement which he founded at Nombre de Dios and San Felipe were neglected by the Spanish government, and the latter was in such a miserable state when Thomas Cavendish visited it in 1587 that he called it Port Famine.

Related Topics:
Pedro de Mendoza - Buenos Aires - Alonzo de Camargo - 1539 - Juan Ladrilleros - 1557 - Hurtado de Mendoza - 1558 - Sir Francis Drake - 1577 - Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa - 1579 - 1580 - Thomas Cavendish - 1587 - Port Famine

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The district in the neighbourhood of Puerto Deseado, explored by John Davis about the same period, was taken possession of by Sir John Narborough in the name of King Charles II of England in 1669.

Related Topics:
John Davis - John Narborough - Charles II of England - 1669

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"Patagonian giants": early European perceptions

According to Antonio Pigafetta, one of the Magellan expedition's few survivors and its published chronicler, Magellan bestowed the name "Patagão" (or Patagoni) on the inhabitants they encountered there, and the name "Patagonia" for the region. Although Pigafetta's account does not describe how this name came about, subsequent popular interpretations gave credence to a derivation meaning 'land of the big feet'. However, this etymology is questionable.

Related Topics:
Antonio Pigafetta - Etymology

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The main interest in the region sparked by Pigafetta's account came from his reports of their meeting with the local inhabitants, who they claimed to measure some nine to twelve feet in height ?"...so tall that we reached only to his waist"?, and hence the later idea that Patagonia meant "big feet". This supposed race of Patagonian giants or Patagones entered into the common European perception of this little-known and distant area, to be further fuelled by subsequent reports of other expeditions and famous-name travellers like Sir Francis Drake, which seemed to confirm these accounts. Early charts of the New World sometimes added the legend regio gigantum ("region of the giants") to the Patagonian area. By 1611 the Patagonian god Setebos (Settaboth in Pigafetta) was familiar to the hearers of the Tempest.

Related Topics:
Patagonian giants - Patagon - New World - 1611

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The concept and general belief persisted for a further 250 years, and was to be sensationally re-ignited in 1767 when an "official" (but anonymous) account was published of Commodore John Byron's recent voyage of global circumnavigation in HMS Dolphin. Byron and crew had spent some time along the coast, and the publication (Voyage Round the World in His Majesty?s Ship the Dolphin) seemed to give proof positive of their existence; the publication became an overnight best-seller, thousands of extra copies were to be sold to a willing public, and other prior accounts of the region were hastily re-published (even those in which giant-like folk were not mentioned at all).

Related Topics:
1767 - Commodore - John Byron - Circumnavigation - HMS ''Dolphin''

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However, the Patagonian giant frenzy was to die down substantially only a few years later, when some more sober and analytical accounts were published. In 1773 John Hawkesworth published on behalf of the Admiralty a compendium of noted English southern-hemisphere explorers' journals, including that of James Cook and John Byron. In this publication, drawn from their official logs, it became clear that the people Byron's expedition had encountered were no taller than 6 foot 6 inches, tall perhaps but by no means giants. Interest soon subsided, although awareness of and belief in the myth persisted in some quarters even up into the 20th century{{fn|1}}.

Related Topics:
1773 - John Hawkesworth - Admiralty - James Cook - Myth - 20th century

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Expansion and exploration- 18th-19th centuries

In the second half of the 18th century knowledge of Patagonia was further augmented by the voyages of the previously-mentioned John Byron (1764–1765), Samuel Wallis (1766, in the same HMS Dolphin which Byron had earlier sailed in) and Louis Antoine de Bougainville (1766). Thomas Falkner, a Jesuit who resided near forty years in those parts, published his Description of Patagonia (Hereford, 1774); Francesco Viedma founded El Carmen, and Antonio advanced inland to the Andes (1782); and Basilio Villarino ascended the Rio Negro (1782).

Related Topics:
18th century - 1764 - 1765 - Samuel Wallis - 1766 - Louis Antoine de Bougainville - Thomas Falkner - 1774 - Francesco Viedma - 1782 - Basilio Villarino

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The expeditions of HMS Adventure (1826–1830) and HMS Beagle (1832–1836) under Philip Parker King and Robert FitzRoy respectively were of first-rate importance, the latter especially from the participation of Charles Darwin; however nothing was observed of the interior of the country except for 200 miles (320 km) of the course of the Santa Cruz.

Related Topics:
HMS ''Adventure'' - 1826 - 1830 - HMS ''Beagle'' - 1832 - 1836 - Philip Parker King - Robert FitzRoy - Charles Darwin

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Captain George Chaworth Musters in 1869 wandered in company with a band of Tehuelches through the whole length of the country from the strait to the Manzaneros in the north-west, and collected a great deal of information about the people and their mode of life.

Related Topics:
George Chaworth Musters - 1869 - Tehuelche

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