CHAPTER XVIIL 



FALKLAND ISLANDS AND SOUTH GEORGIA. 



HIS archipelago, which rises from the Atlantic depths at a distance 

 of 340 miles to the east of Magellan Strait, bears an English 

 name, though not that of its English discoverer. The islands 

 were first sighted by Davis in 1592, and he was followed in 1594 

 by Hawkins, who passed this way on his plundering expedition 

 to the coast of Chili, and named the group the " Maiden Islands," in honour of 

 Queen Elizabeth. Then came the Dutchman, Sebald de Wert, in 1598, who gave 

 them his own name. 



Nearly a century later, that is, in 1689, the navigator Strong dedicated them 

 in his turn to his friend Falkland, and this name has prevailed, although the 

 appellation of Malouines, due to a sailor of Saint-Malo, long figured on the 

 French and Spanish maps. It was even retained by the Argentines, who claimed 

 the archipelago as part of their domain, and gave it the official name of 

 Malvinas. 



In 17t)4 Bougainville took the first steps towards a permanent occupation, 

 by letting loose some cattle in the archipelago ; but he founded no colony 

 properly so-called. Then the Spanish Government, becoming aware of the pro- 

 spective value of these oceanic lands, wished to establish a military station on the 

 islands. But this act of possession having been accompanied by high-handed pro- 

 ceedings against English subjects, the British Government at once protested, and in 

 1765 Admiral Byron arriving with a fleet formally reinstated his fellow-country- 

 men in the name of England, without, however, questioning any higher claims 

 or pretentions of Spain. But it was undoubtedly a serious step, the more so that 

 the English station of Egmont was at the same time erected on the bay of like 

 name. This was obviously a precedent which might afterwards be appealed to 

 as an act of formal possession. 



After the War of Independence, however, the Argentine Hepublic, heir to the 

 rights of Spain, took advantage of the fact that the English military post had 

 meanwhile been abandoned, owing to the heavy cost of maintenance, and in 1828 

 gave a concession of the Falkland Islands to Louis Yernet. a stockbreeder. This 



