José Varela y Ulloa


Category: Seaman, cartographer and astronomist
Birth Date: 7th July 1739 (†23rd July 1794)
Birth Place: Palas de Rey (Lugo)
 Curriculum

He worked as a teacher at the Naval School in Cádiz and became a squadron commander. He worked out the longitude and latitude of Trinidad Island in the Antilles. Together with the French mathematician La Borda, he took measurements of the peak in Tenerife and made the plan of the Canary Islands. He worked out the latitude and longitude of the Annobon Islands, Fernando Poo, Santo Tomé y Príncipe and Cape López Gonzalo. He was on the commission responsible for the delimitation of the frontier between the Spanish domains, in the Plate and Brazil, that had enlarged its frontier to the South after having received from Spain St Catalina and Río Grande del Sur.