 Ferdinand Magellan was the first European explorer to visit the coasts of the provinces in 1520.Italian priest Nicolás Mascardi founded the Jesuit mission "Nuestra Señora de Nahuel Huapi" in 1670 at the shore of the Nahuel Huapi Lake, at the feet of the Andes range.Originally part of the Argentine territory called Patagonia (in 1878 the "Gobernación de la Patagonia"), in 1884 it was organised into the "Territorio Nacional del Río Negro" and General Lorenzo Vintter was appointed as the territory's first governor.