500 VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. [March, 
squadron under the command of Admiral Verhagen and Sebald 
de Wert, and were called by them Sebald's Islands. This name 
appears in the ancient Dutch charts ; and Dampier, who visited 
them in sixteen hundred and eighty-three, calls the islands the 
Sibbet de Wards. They were called the Falkland Islands by 
Strong, an English navigator, in sixteen hundred and eighty-nine, 
and that name has been adopted by the English geographers and 
men of science, particularly by Dr. Halley. The journal of 
Strong yet exists, unprinted, in the British Museum. 
The French, who visited these islands between the years seven- 
teen hundred and seventeen hundred and eight, called them 
Malouines, which name the Spaniards have adopted. The honour 
of the discovery was claimed by the French ; but Frezier, a French 
voyager to these seas, admits them to have been discovered by 
Sir Richard Hawkins, and such is the opinion of the great French 
geographer Malte Brun. 
If this relation of the progress of discovery in these regions 
be correct, and we see no reason for doubt, Spain could have 
gained but a feeble title on the ground of priority of discovery : 
certainly none that would apply to thei southern, eastern, and 
western coasts of Terra del Fuego, Cape Horn, Staten-land, and 
the Falkland Islands ; the honours of discovery there being divi- 
ded between the English and the Dutch. 
If the title of Spain was ever valid, Mr. Baylies contended 
that its validity was unimpaired — that Spain had never renounced 
it, and had not even then acknowledged the independence of the 
Argentine Republic : that it was as perfect and' entire then as it 
was previous to the independence of the South American repub- 
lics. The rights of Spain, if dormant, were not extinct, and she 
had the ability to maintain them. 
Following a suggestion of Mr. Baylies, we have viewed this 
question in another light. Buenos Ayres, or the Argentine Repub- 
lic, claimed sovereignty over the islands by virtue of the revolutiori 
of May twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and ten, when the authority 
of Spain was renounced : while the authority of the king was 
acknowledged until eighteen hundred and sixteen. If, during the 
period between eighteen hundred and ten and eighteen hun- 
dred and sixteen, Ferdinand VII. had undertaken to occupy 
•the islands in question, according to the manner of sovereigns, 
