KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIEKS HANDLINGAR. BAND 57. N:0 4. 207 



as "a great land said to have been discovered by a Spanish vessel". Shadowy though 

 this hypothesis may appear, it was nevertheless repeated by låter cartographers, 1 and 

 even found its way to Spain, where one would have thought that they had no need to 

 obtain information from abroad as to their own discoveries. Don Isidoro de Anttllon, 

 in a chart of the Pacific published in 1801, inserted the archipelago in question with the 

 name "Islas vistas por los Espaholes"; and in the text to the chart he states that, though 

 these islands had been searched for in vain ever since the seventeenth century, their 

 existence could not be doubted because it had been proved by the famous Buache in his 

 above-cited memoir. 2 



The problems offered to geographers by the Pacific Ocean could not, of course, be 

 sol ved without systematic exploration. The first man to set 011 foot such an exploration 

 was the Russian Captain, A. J. von Krusenstern, who in the years 1803—6 commanded 

 an expedition whose object was to establish a connection between Russia and Japan, an 

 undertaking which failed, however. Krusenstern regarded his geographical tasks with far 

 greater critical insight than any of his predecessors, and he directed his criticism first 

 and foremost against the Anson chart, which he rightly characterized as the source of 

 the multitude of islands that were conscientiously transferred to new maps, even though 

 voyages had shown that the majority of them at least are not to be found in the places 

 where they are marked. "Many names of doubtful islands and rocks", be says, "merely 

 serve to conf use and cannot possibly help the seaman in the slightest degree, unless in some 

 conspicuous manner those that really exist and have a position exactly determined are 

 distinguished from the supposititious ones". On his own chart, therefore, he had included 

 only those islands which had been seen and fixed by modern navigatörs; but in order 

 not to lull those who wished to make use of this chart into a dangerous security by the 

 exclusion of islands and rocks which might possibly exist, he had appended a transcript 

 of the Anson chart. But this was not much to be counted on; and it was mere chance 

 that led to the discovery of islands such as Sulphur, Lot's Wife, Grampus etc. "All these 

 discoveries", he adds, "and several others have been made without any real intention of 

 making new discoveries in these regions, although it is not impossible that these had 

 already been seen by the Spaniards in earlier times. But seamen must make a rule to 

 avoid, as far as possible, the routes of their predecessors and to explore in the most caref ul 

 manner the regions in which fairly trust worthy signs of land — that is signs observed by 

 modern seamen — have been seen. So far as circumstances have admitted, I have always 

 sought to follow this principle; to attach importance to stories, even if they have gained 

 support from the learned hypotheses of famous geographers — as, for instance, the 

 hypothesis of Buache concerning the existence of a land seen by the Spaniards during the 



1 C. G. Reichard (Atlas des gamen Erdkreises in der Central-l J rojection, 1803, Tab. 3) expresses 

 himself in more cautious terms: "Wahrscheinliche Lage der grossen Insel, die ehemals ein spanisches Schiff 

 gesehen haben soll, und vergebens wieder aufgesucbt worden ist". D. F. Sotzmann (Karte des Grossen Oceans 

 gewöhnlich das Siid Meer genannt, Hamburg 1810) puts forth wituout reservation "Eine von den Spaniern 

 gesehene grosse Insel". 



2 Carta esferica del Grande Oceano,-con un analisis en quc se manifestan los fundamentos sobre que 

 se ha construido. Madrid 1802, p. 8. 



