Cabo Corrientes (

Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...

Currents) is a rocky outcrop on the Argentine coast between the Chica and Varese beaches in

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a sh ...

, in the extreme southeast of

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, on the

Argentine Sea The Argentine Sea ( es, Mar Argentino) is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the southern tip of South America. It ranges from the mouth of the estuary of the Río de la Plata in the north (35th parallel south) to the Isla de los ...

of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. It is located at the geographical coordinates . Cabo Corrientes was originally called Cabo de las Dos Corrientes (Cape of the Two Currents), since it is the point where a warm current from the tropical coast of Brazil (

Brazil Current The Brazil Current is a warm water current that flows south along the Brazilian south coast to the mouth of the Río de la Plata. Description This current is caused by diversion of a portion of the Atlantic South Equatorial Current from where ...

) converges with a current of frigid water from the Antarctic ( Falklands Current).

History

Sir Francis Drake Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 158 ...

in his 1577

circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the ...

voyage introduced Cabo Corrientes in the

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an i ...

of his time with the name ''Cape Lobos'', due to the large colony of sea lions (''lobos de mar'' in Spanish) in the area. Admiral William Brown anchored at Cabo Corrientes in early January 1826 waiting for ships from

Carmen de Patagones Carmen de Patagones is the southernmost city in the . Geography It is located 937 km southwest from the city of Buenos Aires, on the north bank of the Río Negro ("Black River"), near the Atlantic Ocean, and opposite Viedma, capital of ...

, which he would transfer to the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

in mid-January and to participate in the naval campaign of the

Cisplatine War The Cisplatine War (), also known as the Argentine-Brazilian War () or, in Argentine and Uruguayan historiography, as the Brazil War (''Guerra del Brasil''), the War against the Empire of Brazil (''Guerra contra el Imperio del Brasil'') or t ...

. The national government had sent him to the aid of

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

because it had been blockaded on 21 December 1825 by a powerful squadron from the

Brazilian Empire The Empire of Brazil was a 19th-century state that broadly comprised the territories which form modern Brazil and (until 1828) Uruguay. Its government was a representative parliamentary constitutional monarchy under the rule of Emperors Dom ...

under the command of Vice Admiral Rodrigo José Ferreira de Lobo. Pioneers slowly populated the region, including the lands around the cape. In 1847 the landowner José Gregorio de Lezama took advantage of the polítical situation in the Buenos Aires campaign and bought the lands of Ladislao Martínez Castro, among them the "

Laguna de los Padres Laguna (Italian and Spanish for lagoon) may refer to: People * Abe Laguna (born 1992), American DJ known as Ookay * Andrés Laguna (1499–1559), Spanish physician, pharmacologist, and botanist * Ana Laguna (born 1955), Spanish-Swedish ballet ...

" ranch to the northwest of Cabo Corrientes. Due to his part on the Freemen of the South rebellion against Buenos Aires' governor

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rosas (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confederation. Although ...

, Martínez Castro was forced to sold their properties for a throw-away price, and all his cattle was confiscated. The rural estate occupied roughly the lands of the old

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

mission of

Our Lady of the Pillar Our Lady of the Pillar ( es, Nuestra Señora del Pilar) is the name given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the context of the traditional belief that Mary, while living in Jerusalem, supernaturally appeared to the Apostle James the Greater in AD ...

, that had operated from 13 November 1746 to 1 September 1751. In 1850 he also bought the "La Armonía" ranch, and in 1852 the "San Julián de Vivoratá" ranch. Playa Varese y Cabo Corrientes

José Gregorio de Lezama sold the three ranches in August 1856 to a Portuguese-Brazilian society consisting of Irineu Evangelista de Sousa, Viscount of Mauá, who kept 50%, the other half being evenly divided between Sa de Pereira, Pereira de Faria, Figueredo and the Portuguese José Coelho de Meyrelles, consul of the Kingdom of Portugal in Buenos Aires, who was put in charge of managing the ranches and establishing the first '' saladero'' in the present Mar del Plata streets of Pedro Luro Avenue and Santiago del Estero in Cabo de las Corrientes, which formed the base of the future city of Mar del Plata.

History

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