Un diario de viaje inédito de Basilio Villarino y el mapa de la travesía: más de un siglo de periplo por los archivos

Abstract

In this paper we present the unpublished travel diary of Royal Navy pilot Basilio Villarino, who served as an officer of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at Fuerte del Carmen, one of the pioneer Spanish settlements in the coast of Patagonia, near the mouth of the Negro River. We provide the transcription of that document and the map drawn by the pilot as a graphic complement to the written account.We believe that the combination of both allows a more complete record of the colonial officer’s legacy and provides a more realistic picture of his contribution to the knowledge of the north Patagonian landscape. Collecting this type of documents implies several difficulties related to the scattering of documents through different archives and repositories, cataloging changes, selling of documents in separate lots, information losses or omissions, among other facts. This trip log and its complementary map shed light on the context of their production and also reveal their importance as an aid to the Spanish, given their ignorance regarding a land controlled by Indigenous groups.

Keywords

• Basilio Villarino
• trip log
• map
• 1779
• north Patagonian landscape