A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 12: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the; Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea; and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
think, little reason to doubt that they are the same land to which
Cowley gave the name of Pepys's Island.
[Footnote 26: "Many of them began to spring up very fast, and we have
since heard, that some persons who arrived there after our departure,
eat of those roots and sallad."]
In the printed account of Cowley's voyage, he says, "we held our course
S.W. till we came into the latitude of forty-seven degrees, where we saw
land, the same being an island, not before known, lying to the westward
of us: It was not inhabited, and I gave it the name of Pepys's Island.
We found it a very commodious place for ships to water at, and take in
wood, and it has a very good harbour, where a thousand sail of ships may
safely ride. Here is great plenty of fowls; and, we judge, abundance of
fish, by reason of the ground's being nothing but rocks and sands."
To this account there is annexed a representation of Pepys's Island, in
which names are given to several points and head-lands, and the harbour
is called Admiralty Bay; yet it appears that Cowley had only a distant
view of it, for he immediately adds, "the wind being so extraordinary
high that we could not get into it to water, we stood to the southward,
shaping our course S.S.W. till we came into the latitude of 53°;" and
though he says that "it was commodious to take in wood," and it is known
that there is no wood on Falkland's Islands, Pepys's Island and
Falkland's Islands may notwithstanding be the same; for upon Falkland's
Islands there are immense quantities of flags with narrow leaves, reeds
and rushes which grow in clusters, so as to form bushes about three feet
high, and then shoot about six or seven feet higher: These at a distance
have greatly the appearance of wood, and were taken for wood by the
French, who landed there in the year 1764, as appears by Pernetty's
account of their voyage.[27] It has been suggested that the latitude of
Pepys's Island might, in the MS. from which the account of Cowley's
voyage was printed, be expressed in figures, which, if ill made, might
equally resemble forty-seven, and fifty-one; and therefore as there is
no island in these seas in latitude forty-seven, and as Falkland's
Islands lie nearly in fifty-one, that fifty-one might reasonably be
concluded to be the number for which the figures were intended to stand:
Recourse therefore was had to the British Museum, and a manuscript
journal of Cowley's was there found. In this manuscript no mention is
made of an island not before known, to which he gave the name of Pepys's
Island, but land is mentioned in latitude forty-seven degrees forty
minutes, expressed in words at length, which exactly answers to the
description of what is called Pepys's Island in the printed account, and
which here, he says, he supposed to be the islands of Sebald de Wert.
This part of the manuscript is in the following words: "January, 1683,
This month we were in the latitude of forty-seven degrees and forty
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account