A manuscript chart, probably in the hand of Felipe Bauzá y Cañas, official hydrographer to Alessandro Malaspina's celebrated expedition to circumnavigate the world for the Spanish crown at the height of Spanish Empire in the Americas. The chart shows the entrance to the Rio de la Plata – River of Silver - extending on the east coast to Uruguay, and on the south coast from Cabo San Antonio to Laguna de Rocha.

The river's estuary is the confluence of the Uruguay and Parana Rivers where they empty into the Atlantic Ocean, which now marks the border between Argentina and Uruguay. Then, it was the first significant stop of Malaspina's voyage.

The chart is a more sophisticated version of the central part of Felipe Bauzá y Cañas's earlier chart, engraved by Fernando Selmala, and published as 'Carta esférica del Río de la Plata desde su desembocadura hasta Buenos Aires levantada de Orden del Rey en 1789 y rectificada en 1794 por varios oficiales de su R[ea]l Armada, Presentada a S.M. por mano del Excmo. Sr. D. Juan de Langara Secretario de Estado y del Despacho Universal de Marina' (1798). It is possible that it was source material for William Heather's 'Survey of the River Plate, Presented to the King of Spain By Don Juan de Langara' (1806); subsequently revised and issued as 'Don Juan de Langara's Survey of the River Plate, Made By Order of the King of Spain, with Additions and Improvements, By J.W. Norie, Hydrographer' (1824).

Leaving Cadiz in July of 1789, the 'Descubierta' and 'Atrevida' sailed up the Rio de la Plata to survey the estuary, with the help of a convoy of local navigators, and to report on the state of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, which extended to include the whole of the Rio de la Plata basin, including Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uraguay - an enormous but very short-lived and tumultuous arm of the Spanish Empire (1776-1825). The expedition was there a few months, before heading south to the Falkland Islands.

Returning to Cadiz in 1794, the expedition was a hailed a resounding success, but Malaspina was too outspoken in his opinions for the successful governance of the Spanish Empire abroad, and he fell foul of political intrigue, lost the favour of the King, was tried, convicted, imprisoned in 1795, and the results of his expedition were essentially suppressed, which is why published charts related to the Malaspina expedition are so rare.

Malaspina's papers in the archives of the Dirección de Hidrografia were only edited and published in Madrid by Don Pedro de Novo y Colson as Viaje politico-científico alrededor del mundo' in 1885.

Initially, Bauzá fared better. He had a very successful career, first in the hydrographic office in Madrid, then he succeeded Espinosa y Tello as director of the Depósito Hidrográfico, and was elected to the Royal Society (Britain) in 1819. However, in 1823, he too found himself on the wrong side of royal favour and fled to London, taking all his papers with him, including this chart. During his lifetime he made good use of his own archive, and the Admiralty published some of his charts, but after his death in 1833, his family sold much of what was left, to various interested institutions, including the Admiralty Office, the British Library, "one of the largest collections of maps and official papers on colonial Latin America outside the Iberian Peninsula (now Add. MSS. 17556-676). Commonly known as the 'Bauza Collection', its story before December 1848, when it was acquired by the British Museum" (Barber).

Robert Laurie, probably acquired this chart, and another in the collection, from Felipe Bauzá, the official hydrographer to the Malaspina expedition, who fled to London in 1823, bringing his papers and charts with him. The two would have undoubtedly known each other.

See item (44) for an earlier version of this chart.