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 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 slave trade. He th ...

, 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 (roughly equivalent to £ in 2018), was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on th ...

'' 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 naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

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 and a scientist. He achieved lasting fame as the captain of during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, FitzRoy's second expedition to Tierra de ...

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 Martínez (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 unified Argentina. Mitre is known as the most versatile ...

. In 1873 a 650-ton

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

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