Isla Pavón (Pavon Island) is an island in the Santa Cruz River in the department of Corpen Aike in Santa Cruz province in southern Argentina. The town of

Comandante Luis Piedrabuena Comandante Luis Piedrabuena is a town with 4,175 inhabitants in the department of Corpen Aike in Santa Cruz province in Argentina. Located on the left bank of the Santa Cruz river on Ruta Nacional N° 3, it is 231 km from the city of Rí ...

is on the north bank of the river, just downstream from the island. The English captain

Pringle Stokes Pringle Stokes (23 April 1793 – 12 August 1828) was a British naval officer who served in HMS '' Owen Glendower'' on a voyage around Cape Horn to the Pacific coast of South America, and on the West African coast fighting the African slave trad ...

, who commanded ''

HMS Beagle HMS ''Beagle'' was a 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, one of more than 100 ships of this class. The vessel, constructed at a cost of £7,803, was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. Later reports say ...

'' on her first voyage in 1828, entered the river and recorded the island, about from the river's mouth. On the Beagle's second voyage in 1834, when

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English Natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

was part of the exploring party, Captain

Robert FitzRoy Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy (5 July 1805 – 30 April 1865) was an English officer of the Royal Navy, politician and scientist who served as the second governor of New Zealand between 1843 and 1845. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of ...

called it "Middle Island". A trading post was established on the island by

Luis Piedrabuena Luis Piedrabuena (; 24 August 1833 - 10 August 1883) was an Argentine sailor whose actions in southern Argentina consolidated national sovereignty at a time when these lands were virtually uninhabited and were not protected by the state. His biogr ...

in 1859. In 1868 Piedrabuena was granted possession of the island by the government of President

Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of Argentine Civil Wars#National unification, unified Argentina. Mitre i ...

. In 1873 a 650-ton

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

an corvette, the Abtao, arrived at the tiny settlement on Pavón and tried to intimidate the settlers into leaving. Piedrabuena refused to yield.

References

Citations Sources' * * Populated places in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina Pavon {{SantaCruzAR-geo-stub