To This
Strait He Gave The Name Of Falkland's Sound, In Honour Of His Patron Lord
Falkland; And The Name Has Since Been Extended, Through Inadvertency, To
The Two Islands It Separates.
Having mentioned these islands, I will add, that future navigators will
mis-spend their time, if they look for Pepy's Island in 47 deg.
S.; it being
now certain, that Pepy's Island is no other than these islands of
Falkland.[7]
In April, 1675, Anthony la Roche, an English merchant, in his return from
the South Pacific Ocean, where he had been on a trading voyage, being
carried by the winds and currents, far to the east of Strait Le Maire, fell
in with a coast, which may possibly be the same with that which I visited
during this voyage, and have called the Island of Georgia.
Leaving this land, and sailing to the north, La Roche, in the latitude of
45 deg. S., discovered a large island, with a good port towards the eastern
part, where he found wood, water, and fish.
In 1699, that celebrated astronomer, Dr Edmund Halley, was appointed to the
command of his majesty's ship the Paramour Pink, on an expedition for
improving the knowledge of the longitude, and of the variation of the
compass; and for discovering the unknown lands supposed to lie in the
southern part of the Atlantic Ocean. In this voyage he determined the
longitude of several places; and, after his return, constructed his
variation-chart, and proposed a method of observing the longitude at sea,
by means of the appulses and occultations of the fixed stars. But, though
he so successfully attended to the two first articles of his instructions,
he did not find any unknown southern land.[8]
The Dutch, in 1721, fitted out three ships to make discoveries in the South
Pacific Ocean, under the command of Admiral Roggewein. He left the Texel on
the 21st of August, and arriving in that ocean, by going round Cape Horn,
discovered Easter Island, probably seen before, though not visited, by
Davies;[9] then between 14 deg. 41' and 15 deg. 47' S. latitude, and between the
longitude of 142 deg. and 150 deg. W., fell in with several other islands, which I
take to be some of those seen by the late English navigators. He next
discovered two islands in latitude 15 deg. S., longitude 170 deg. W., which he
called Baumen's Islands; and, lastly, Single Island, in latitude 13 deg. 41'
S., longitude 171 deg. 30' W. These three islands are, undoubtedly, the same
that Bougainville calls the Isles of Navigators.[10]
In 1738, the French East India Company sent Lozier Bouvet with two ships,
the Eagle and Mary, to make discoveries in the South Atlantic Ocean. He
sailed from Port L'Orient on the 19th of July in that year; touched at the
island of St Catherine; and from thence shaped his course towards the
south-east.
On the 1st of January, 1739, he discovered land, or what he judged to be
land, in latitude 54 deg.
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