230 



FALKLAND ISLANDS. 



even the trifling distinction of discovering the Falklands, when 

 it is evident that he could not have seen them ? * 



On the 14th of August 1592, John Davis, who sailed with 

 Cavendish on his second voyage, but separated from him in May 

 1592, discovered the islands now called Falkland. In Mr. John 

 Jane's relation of Davis's voyage (Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 846), 

 there is the following simple, but distinct account of this dis- 

 covery : " Aug. 14, 1792. We were driven in among certain 

 isles, never before discovered by any known relation, lying 

 fifty leagues or better from the shore, east and northerly from 

 the Straif (of Magalhaens). 



At this time Davis was striving to enter the Strait of Magal- 

 hasns, but had been long at sea, and driven far by tempests. 

 His bearing is correct, though the distance (by estimation 

 only) is too small. 



In 1683-4, Dampier and Cowley saw three islands in lat. 51° 

 to 51° 20' S., which they (correctly) supposed to be those seen 

 and named by Sebald de Weert. However, the editor of Cow- 

 ley's narrative, one William Hack, published a different lati- 

 tude for the land they saw, and called it Pepys Island, in com- 

 pliment to the then Secretary of the Admiralty, intending that 

 it should be supposed a new discovery. The false latitude given 

 by Hack was 47° S. : in his drawing of the island he did not 

 omit the insertion of an Admiralty Bay and a Secretary Point. 



Hawkins sailed along the northern shores of these islands in 

 1594, and he, ignorant of Davis's discovery, named them Haw- 

 kins's Maiden Land. His account appearing first, and promi- 

 nently, before the public, procured for them the name by which 

 they were known until Strong, in 1690, sailed through and 

 anchored in the channel which he named Falkland Sound. 

 The Welfare's journal, written by Strong, is in the British 

 Museum, together with Observations made during a South 

 Sea Voyage, written by Richard Simson, who sailed in the 



• Could the constructor of the chart, published at Rome in 1508, have 

 been misinformed, owing- to a mistake of 5 for 3 (50 for 30) ? Such errors 

 occur frequently in modern compilations. 



