History of a Voyage to the Falkland Islands

circuit. He coasted along the entire
Eastern part, judging it uninhabited be-
cause he saw neither fire nor ship; and
had he not feared losing the
favorable time for doubling
Cape Horn, he would have landed
in this country to visit
it; the sole act of sovereignty
he exercised was to give it the
name of Belgia original: "Belgie"; named after the Latin name for the Low Countries, because it is
located in a latitude corre-
sponding to that of the Netherlands;
but this event did not seem
to the Batavia Company The Dutch East India Company (VOC) operating out of Batavia, modern-day Jakarta a sufficient
title to send its Admi-
rals to take possession of the
Malouines Islands The Falkland Islands.

The English have also shared
with the Dutch the glory of
scouting the Malouines Islands;
they all appear to have been con-

ducted there while searching for a purported
Pepys Island, which Cowley in 1686
believed he discovered (d), where there is, says—

(d) The entire account of Captain Cowley
appears erroneous to Dom Pernetry Antoine-Joseph Pernety, a Benedictine monk and naturalist who accompanied Bougainville, and it is easy,
he says, to be convinced of this by reading his
voyage. This Englishman says that "heavy weather
prevented him from landing, and that he could not put
his longboat to sea. If he saw this land, in
effect, it was only in passing, as
several Navigators have done with many
other Islands and Lands which are still
unknown to us, as much for the quality and pro-
ductions of the terrain, as for the true
position of their coasts. Since this Captain
did not land there, how can he say
that it is a convenient place to take on
water? There is perhaps no fresh water at all.
As for wood, we were deceived there
by appearances; while running the Coast of the
Malouines Islands, we thought we saw some,
and after landing there, these appearances
gave us in reality nothing but sword-grass original: "glajeux"; likely Tussac grass (Poa flabellata);
a species of rush or plant with long leaves,
flat and narrow, which rises in a mound of
at least three feet, and whose leaves in
tufts are, in rising above the
mound, a height of six to seven feet."

B ij