Agustín Ibáñez y Bojons (also spelled Bofons and Matamoros) (San Miguel de Peitieiros, Gondomar, Pontevedra; September 1771 – Ceuta; May 1805) was a Spanish military officer, engineer, and cartographer who reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. He served in the Spanish Army and died in Ceuta while still in service. He was the author of several maps, mainly of South America, which are kept in the Archivo General de Indias and the Biblioteca Nacional de España. Among his works are various maps of different sites in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata at the end of the 18th century, such as the port of Montevideo, coastal areas, and boundary demarcations between Spanish and Portuguese territories.
Biography
Born in the parish of San Miguel de Peiteiros (Diocese of Tui, Pontevedra) in September 1771, he joined the Spanish Army. He served for several decades, reaching the rank of captain and later lieutenant colonel.
Ibáñez was appointed engineer in charge of the fortification of Montevideo in the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata by royal decree dated 29 March 1794, in response to Portuguese advances.
In 1800, Ibáñez created a map of South America that displays borders similar to those in the 1775 map by Juan de la Cruz Cano y Olmedilla, with the notable difference that the Atlantic boundary of the Kingdom of Chile is drawn closer to the 36th parallel south rather than the 38th. The description, reproduced in the 1942 volume *Monumenta Chartographica Indiana* by Julio Guillén Tato, prepared for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Spain), states that the map contains the "limits of the Viceroyalty of Buenos Aires," and the map itself includes the label "Fronteras de Buenos Ayres":
The map was sent in 1802 to Secretary of State José de Urruña by Martínez de Cáceres, and in 1804, Ibáñez himself forwarded it to the Spanish Government along with a plan of operations to reclaim territories occupied by the Portuguese.
He died in May 1805 in Ceuta while on active military duty, at the age of 33.
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