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
"The same night we steered our course againe west south west, which was
but our south west, the compasse having two and twenty degrees variation
eastwardly, keeping that course till we came in the latitude of three
and fifty degrees."
In both the printed and manuscript account, this land is said to lie in
latitude forty-seven, to be situated to the westward of the ship when
first discovered, to appear woody, to have an harbour where a great
number of ships might ride in safety, and to be frequented by
innumerable birds. It appears also by both accounts, that the weather
prevented his going on shore, and that he steered from it W.S.W. till he
came into latitude fifty-three: There can therefore be little doubt but
that Cowley gave the name of Pepys's Island after he came home, to what
he really supposed to be the island of Sebald de Wert, for which it is
not difficult to assign several reasons; and though the supposition of a
mistake of the figures does not appear to be well grounded, yet, there
being no land in forty-seven, the evidence that what Cowley saw was
Falkland's Islands is very strong. The description of the country agrees
in almost every particular, and even the map is of the same general
figure, with a strait running up the middle. The chart of Falkland's
that accompanies my narrative, was laid down from the journals and
drawings of Captain Macbride, who was dispatched thither after my
return, and circumnavigated the whole coast: The two principal islands
were probably called Falkland's Islands by Strong, about the year 1689,
as he is known to have given the name of Falkland's Sound to part of the
strait which divides them. The journal of this navigator is still
unprinted in the British Museum. The first who saw these islands is
supposed to be Captain Davies, the associate of Cavendish, in 1692. In
1594, Sir Richard Hawkins saw land, supposed to be the same, and in
honour of his mistress, Queen Elizabeth, called them Hawkins's Maiden
Land. Long afterwards, they were seen by some French ships from Saint
Maloes, and Frezier, probably for that reason, called them the Malouins,
a name which has been since adopted by the Spaniards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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