Chapter XI

HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS.

The Falkland Islands, lying between the parallels of 51° and 53° S., and extending from near 57° almost to 62° W., are in number about two hundred, but only two are of considerable size. Between these latter, called East, and West Falkland, is the channel to which our countryman, Strong, gave the name of Falkland Sound, he himself calling the adjacent country Hawkins’ Land.

Plausible assertions have been made by parties anxious to disprove the claim of Great Britain to these islands, and so few persons, excepting those immediately concerned, have inclination to refer to original documents, that I may be pardoned for recalling to the recollection of those to whom the subject is still interesting, a few well-known facts, which, if fairly considered, place the question above dispute.

It has been asserted, that Americus Vespucius saw these islands in 1502,[1] but if the account of Americus himself is authentic,[2] he could not have explored farther south than the right bank of La Plata. In 1501-2 Americus Vespucius, then employed by the King of Portugal, sailed 600 leagues south and 150 leagues west from Cape San Agostinho (lat. 8° 20′ S.) along the coast of a country then named Terra Sancte Crucis.[3] His account of longitude may be very erroneous, but how could his latitude have erred thirteen degrees in this his southernmost voyage?

The south shore of the Plata is low, and appears to be woody, though it is not; the depth of water off it is moderate, and the currents are strong--all which peculiarities have been remarked on the northern coasts of the Falklands; therefore the ‘description’ alluded to by De Bougainville would apply equally well to the right bank of the Plata. The late Mr. Dalrymple published an extract from a chart printed at Rome, in 1508, in which it is said, that ships of Portugal discovered a continuation of land as far south as fifty degrees,[4] which did not there terminate. In that chart the name America is not to be found. Brazil is there called Terra[5] Sancte Crucis.

If the Portuguese or any other people actually traced or even discovered portions of coast south of the Plata before 1512, it appears strange that so remarkable an estuary, one hundred and twenty miles across, should have been overlooked; especially as soundings extend two hundred miles seaward of its entrance:--and that the world should have no clear record of its having been discovered prior to the voyage of Juan de Solis, in 1512. Vespucius has already robbed Columbus and his predecessor, Cabot, of the great honour of affixing their names to the New World--shall he also be tacitly permitted to claim even the trifling distinction of discovering the Falklands, when it is evident that he could not have seen them?[6]

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 discovery: “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 Strait” (of Magalhaens).

At this time Davis was striving to enter the Strait of Magalhaens, 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 Cowley’s narrative, one William Hack, published a different latitude for the land they saw, and called it Pepys Island, in compliment 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 Hawkins’s Maiden Land. His account appearing first, and prominently, 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 same ship; but a few sentences in each are so relevant to the present subject, that I shall quote them verbatim:--“1690. Monday 27th January. We saw the land; when within three or four leagues, we had thirty-six fathoms. It is a large land, and lieth east and west nearest. There are several quays that lie among the shore. We sent our boat to one, and she brought on board abundance of penguins, and other fowls, and seals. We steered along shore E. by N., and at eight at night we saw the land run eastward as far as we could discern. Lat. 51° 3′ S.

“Tuesday 28th. This morning at four o’clock we saw a rock that lieth from the main island four or five leagues. It maketh like a sail.[7] At six, we stood into a sound that lies about twenty leagues from the westernmost land we had seen. The sound lieth south and north nearest. There is twenty-four fathoms depth at the entrance, which is four leagues wide. We came to an anchor six or seven leagues within, in fourteen fathoms water. Here are many good harbours. We found fresh water in plenty, and killed abundance of geese and ducks. As for wood, there is none.

“On the 31st we weighed from this harbour, with the wind at W.S.W. We sent our long-boat a-head of the ship, to sound before us. At eight o’clock in the evening, we anchored in nine fathoms. The next morning we weighed, and sent our boat before us. At ten, we were clear out of the sound. At twelve, we set the west cape bearing N.N.E., which we named Cape Farewell. This sound, Falkland Sound as I named it, is about seventeen leagues long; the first entrance lies S. by E., and afterwards S. by W.”

How it happened that the name Falkland, originally given to the sound alone, obliterated Hawkins, and has never yielded to Davis, is now a matter of very trifling importance.

I may be permitted to remark particularly, that Hawkins and Strong not only saw both East and West Falkland, but that in 1690 Strong anchored repeatedly between them, and landed: and I do so, because stress has been laid upon the fact of Beauchesne Goüin having anchored in 1700 on their eastern coast.

In the year 1600, the islands now called Jasons, Salvages, or Sebaldines, at the north-west extremity of the Falklands, were seen and named by Sebald de Weert; and during the next two centuries many other navigators, sailing to or from the Pacific, saw the Falklands; but it does not appear that any further landing was effected, or even that any vessel anchored there, after Beauchesne, except the Saint Louis, of St. Malo, until M. de Bougainville landed to form his settlement, in February 1764.

Several ships of St. Malo passed near the Eastern Falklands between the years 1706 and 1714, from whose accounts M. Frezier compiled his chart, published in 1717; and in compliment to the owners of one of them (the Saint Louis), her commander, M. Fouquet, named the cluster of islets near which he anchored, the Anican Isles.

In consequence of the visits of these ships of St. Malo, the French named the islands Les Malouines; but this was not till after 1716, when Frezier compiled the chart in which he called them ‘Isles Nouvelles,’ although in his own narrative (p. 512, Amsterdam edition, 1717), he says, “Ces îsles sont sans doute les mêmes que celles que le Chevalier Richard Hawkins découvrit en 1593.”

The Spaniards adopted the French name, slightly altered, by changing Malouines into Malvinas: even now the term ‘Maloon,’ a corruption of Malouine,[8] is sometimes used by English or Americans instead of island, in writing as well as in speaking.

During the early part of the last century, France maintained a lucrative commerce with Chile and Peru, by way of Cape Horn, and the advantages which might be derived from a port of refuge and supply at the eastern extremity of the Falklands did not escape her active discernment.

De Bougainville says, “Cependant leur position heureuse pour servir de relâche aux vaisseaux qui vont dans la mer du sud, et d’échelle pour la découverte des terres Australes, avoit frappé les navigateurs de toutes les nations. Au commencement de l’année 1763, la cour de France résolut de former un établissement dans ces îles. Je proposai au ministere de le commencer à mes frais, et secondé par MM. de Nerville et d’Arboulin, l’un mon cousin-germain et l’autre mon oncle, je fis sur le champ construire et armer à Saint Malo, par les soins de M. Duclos Guyot, aujourd’hui mon second, l’Aigle de vingt canons, et le Sphinx de douze, que je munis de tout ce qui étoit propre pour une pareille expédition. J’embarquai plusieurs familles Acadiennes, espèce d’hommes laborieuse, intelligente, et qui doit être chère à la France par l’inviolable attachement que lui out prouvé ces honnêtes et infortunés citoyens.

“A Monte Video nous prîmes beaucoup de chevaux, et de bêtes à corne,--nous atterrâmes sur les îles Sébaldes le 31 Janvier 1764.

“La même illusion qui avoit fait croire à Hawkins, à Woodes Rogers, et aux autres, que ces îles étoient couvertes de bois, agit aussi sur mes compagnons de voyage, et sur moi. Nous vîmes avec surprise, en débarquant, que ce que nous avions pris pour du bois en cinglant le long de la côte, n’étoit autre chose que des touffes de jonc fort élevées et fort rapprochées les unes des autres. Leur pied, en se desséchant reçoit la couleur d’herbe morte jusqu’à une toise environ de hauteur; et de là sort une touffe de joncs[9] d’un beau verd qui couronne ce pied; de sorte que, dans l’éloignement, les tiges réunies présentent l’aspect d’un bois de médiocre hauteur. Ces joncs ne croissent qu’au bord de la mer, et sur les petites îles; les montagnes de la grande terre sont, dans quelques endroits, couvertes entièrement de bruyères, qu’on prend aisément de loin pour du taillis.”--(Voyage autour du Monde, 1766-69, séconde édition, 1772, tom. i. p. 66-69.)

On the 17th of March De Bougainville decided to place his establishment on the spot where the present settlement stands, and forthwith disembarked to commence the laborious undertaking of founding a colony.

In the year 1764, a squadron was sent to the South Seas by George III., in whose instructions, dated June 17th, 1764, it is said, “And whereas his Majesty’s islands, called Pepys Island and Falkland Islands, lying within the said track,” (the track between the Cape of Good Hope and the Strait of Magalhaens), “notwithstanding their having been first discovered and visited by British navigators, have never yet been so sufficiently surveyed, as that an accurate judgment may be formed of their coasts and product, his Majesty, taking the premises into consideration, and conceiving no junction so proper for enterprises of this nature as a time of profound peace, which his kingdoms at present happily enjoy, has thought fit that it should now be undertaken.”

On the 23d January 1765, Commodore Byron went on shore at these islands, with the captains and principal officers of his squadron, “when the Union Jack being erected on a high staff, and spread, the commodore took possession of the harbour and all the neighbouring islands for his Majesty King George III., his heirs, and successors, by the name of Falkland Islands. When the colours were spread, a salute was fired from the ship.”

In consequence of Byron’s favourable report, Captain Macbride was sent out in H.M.S. Jason to begun their colonization. He arrived in January 1766.

Spain, hearing of the French settlement, immediately laid claim to the islands, as forming a part of her American possessions; and France, influenced by various considerations, agreed to deliver up to Spain her newly-formed colony, upon condition that the projectors and colonists should be indemnified for their losses: an agreement honourably fulfilled by Spain.

On the 1st of April 1767, De Bougainville gave up possession to the Spanish officer appointed to take charge: the standard of Spain was hoisted, and royal salutes fired by the vessels present. Some of the French colonists remained, but the greater part preferred returning to France, and passages were given to them on board Spanish ships.

In 1770, a Spanish armament attacked the British colony at Port Egmont, and obliged its small garrison to surrender to an overpowering force, and quit the place. England, indignant at the insult, armed for war, and demanded satisfaction from Spain for the injury inflicted. At first Spain argued and temporized; but finding that Great Britain continued firm, and that the English people were even more disposed for action than their Government, she relinquished her views--disavowed the act of her officer--and restored Port Egmont. England was satisfied--or rather, the court party professed to be satisfied; but the opposers of government angrily declared that Spain had not done enough; and that, though compelled to make restitution, her insult was unatoned for.

In 1774, finding the establishment at the Falklands expensive, and almost useless,[10] England quietly withdrew it; but the marks and signals of possession and property were left upon the islands, and when the governor departed, the British flag remained flying, and various formalities were observed, intended to indicate the right of possession, as well as to show that the occupation of them might be resumed.

The reports made by officers employed at Port Egmont were of such a discouraging tendency, that no person at that time entertained the least wish to have any further concern with the islands--and for years they were unnoticed--though not forgotten by England. Spain, however, jealous of interference with her colonial possessions, and regarding the Falklands as a vantage-ground, from which those in the south might be suddenly or secretly invaded, maintained a small garrison at the eastern extremity of the Archipelago, where her ships occasionally touched, and from time to time reconnoitred the adjacent, ports, in order to ascertain whether any visitors were there. At what precise time the Spaniards withdrew this small garrison, and left the Falkland archipelago uninhabited by man, I am not certain; but it must have been early in this century, because from 1810 to 1820 there was no person upon those islands who claimed even a shadow of authority over any of them.

In 1820, a ship of war was sent from Buenos Ayres to Port Louis; her captain, Jewitt, hoisted the Argentine flag, and saluted it with twenty-one guns; notifying, at the same time, to the sealing and whaling vessels present, that he was “commissioned by the Supreme Government of the United Provinces of South America to take possession of these islands in the name of the country to which they naturally appertain.”--(Weddell, p. 103.) This act of the Buenos Ayrean Government was scarcely known in Europe for many years; and not until 1829 was it noticed formally by Great Britain.

After reading this short statement of facts, one may pause to consider what nation is at this moment the legitimate owner of the Falklands. Do the discovery, prior occupation, and settlement of new and uninhabited countries give a right to possession? If so, Great Britain is the legal owner of those islands. Davis first discovered them; Hawkins first named them; Strong first landed on them; and (excepting the French), Byron first took formal possession of them; and (again excepting the French), Macbride first colonized them. Respecting the French claim, depending only upon first settlement, not discovering, naming, or landing; whatever validity any one may be disposed to allow it, that value must be destroyed, when it is remembered that Spain asserted her superior claim, and that France actually admitted it, resigning for ever her pretensions to those islands. Whatever France might have been induced to do for political reasons, of which the most apparent now is the continuance of the trade she then carried on with Chile and Peru, England never admitted that the Spanish claim was valid: and France having withdrawn, the question is solely between Spain and Great Britain. Spaniards neither discovered, landed upon, nor settled in the Falklands before Englishmen; and their only claim rests upon the unstable foundation of a papal bull, by virtue of which Spain might just as well claim Otaheite, the Sandwich Islands, or New Zealand.

As to the pretensions of Buenos Ayres, I shall only remark, that in a paper transmitted by her government to Mr. Baylies, chargé-d’affaires of the United States of North America, on the 14th August 1832, the advocate of her claims asserts, that “it is a political absurdity to pretend that a colony which emancipates itself, inherits the other territories which the metropolis may possess. If that singular doctrine were to be found in the code of nations, the Low Countries, for example, on their independence being acknowledged, in 1648, would have succeeded to Spain in her rights to America; and in the same manner, the United States would have appropriated to themselves the British possessions in the East-Indies. Inheritance, indeed! the United States did not inherit the rights of England in Newfoundland, notwithstanding its contiguity: and are they to inherit those which she may have to the Malvinas, at the southern extremity of the continent, and in the opposite hemisphere.”[11]

The writer of the preceding sentences, in his haste to attack the United States of America for an assertion made by one of their journalists, to the effect that the United States inherited from Great Britain a claim to fish around the Falklands, must have overlooked the simple fact, that his arguments were even more applicable to Buenos Ayres than they were to the United States of North America.

When Captain Jewitt arrived at the Falklands, he found more than thirty sail of vessels engaged there in the seal fishery, besides others which were recruiting the health of their crews after whaling or sealing voyages in the antarctic regions. By the crews of these ships numbers of cattle and pigs were killed, as well as horses, the wild descendants of those taken there by Bougainville and his successors.

In 1823, the Buenos Ayrean Government took another step, in the appointment of a ‘comandante de las Malvinas;’ and in the same year, Lewis Vernet, by birth a German, in concert with his friends at Buenos Ayres, “solicited and obtained from the Government the use of the fishery and of the cattle on the Eastern Malvina, and likewise tracts of land thereon, in order to provide for the subsistence of the settlement.[12] This undertaking did not prosper; but the next year Mr. Vernet prepared a second expedition, in which he himself sailed. His own words (translated) are:[13] “After many sacrifices, I was enabled to surmount great obstacles; but still that which we expected to effect in one year was not realized before the expiration of five. My partners lost all hope, and sold me their shares. I bought successively three vessels, and lost them; I chartered five, one of which was lost. Each blow produced dismay in the colonists, who several times resolved to leave that ungrateful region, but were restrained by their affection for me, which I had known how to win, and by the example of constancy and patience which my family and myself held out to them.”

In 1828, the Government of Buenos Ayres granted to Mr. Vernet (with certain exceptions) the right of property in the Falkland Islands--and in Staten Land! “It also conceded to the colony exemption from taxation for twenty years, and for the same period the exclusive right to the fishery in all the Malvinas, and on the coast of the continent to the southward of the Rio Negro, under the condition that within three years I (Vernet) should have established the colony.”[14]

About this time merchant-vessels of all nations visited the Falkland Islands, both in their outward voyage and when returning from the Pacific; but advantageous as their visits were, those of numerous sealers had a very different effect: for, instead of frequenting the settlement, their crews killed the seal indiscriminately at all seasons, and slaughtered great numbers of wild cattle. “For this reason,” says Vernet, “I requested the Government to furnish me with a vessel of war, to enable me to cause the rights of the colony to be respected. The Government was aware of the necessity of the measure; but not being then able to place a vessel at my disposal, it resolved to invest me with a public and official character, and for that purpose issued the two decrees of the 10th of June: the one re-establishing the governorship of the Malvinas and Tierra del Fuego; and the other nominating me to fulfil that office.”[15]

In 1829, Vernet warned off some North American sealers: and in 1831, upon their repeating the sealing excursion of which he had complained, he detained them by force. This act, and various circumstances arising out of it, drew upon him and his unfortunate colony the hasty indignation of Captain Silas Duncan, of the United States corvette Lexington, who, on his own responsibility, without waiting to communicate with his Government, sailed from the Plata to the Falkland Islands, surprised, assaulted, and made prisoners of many unoffending people, and unwarrantably destroyed both property and buildings. Mr. Brisbane and several others were put into confinement, and carried away, on board the Lexington, to Buenos Ayres, where they were delivered up to the Buenos Ayrean Government, in February 1832. The United States supported their officer, and immediately despatched a chargé-d’affaires to Buenos Ayres, with instructions to demand compensation for the injury done to North American trade, and full reparation to all North American citizens for personal wrongs.

While the United States and Buenos Ayres were discussing the questions at issue, Great Britain, following up the solemn warnings she had given Buenos Ayres (especially in the protest addressed to that Government by Mr. Parish, in November 1829), issued orders to her Commander-in-chief on the South American station, to send a vessel of war to re-hoist the British flag upon the Falkland Islands: to assert her right of sovereignty, and to cause every thing belonging to the Buenos Ayrean Government to be embarked and sent away.

On the 2d of January 1833, H.M.S. Clio anchored in Berkeley Sound, to carry these orders into effect: H.M.S. Tyne, about the same time, anchoring in Port Egmont. In each place the British colours were hoisted and saluted: the small Buenos Ayrean garrison at Port Louis quietly withdrew, and sailed for the Plata in an armed schooner, belonging to Buenos Ayres: and from that time those unhappy islands have been more ostensibly British, though but little has yet been done to draw forth the resources, and demonstrate the advantages which they unquestionably possess. When the Tyne and Clio sailed, after a very short stay at the islands, no authority was left there, but the colours were entrusted to an Irishman, who had been Mr. Vernet’s storekeeper.[16]

In 1834, a lieutenant in the navy, with a boat’s crew, was sent to reside at Port Louis, and since that time various small ships of war have succeeded each other in visiting and exploring the numerous islands and harbours of that archipelago.

Those who may wish for more historical information on this subject--for further details of former negociations between Spain and England, or of the late discussions between North America and Buenos Ayres--should refer to Dr. Johnson’s “Thoughts respecting the Falkland Islands” (Johnson’s Works, vol. viii. p. 96, Murphy’s Edition, 1816): to Junius’s 42d Letter; and to papers published at Buenos Ayres in 1832; in addition to general history.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Il me paroît qu’on en peut attribuer la première découverte au célèbre Améric Vespuce, qui, dans son troisième voyage pour la découverte de l’Amérique, en parcourut la côte du nord au mois d’Avril 1502. Il ignoroit à la vérité si elle appartenoit à une île, ou si elle faisoit partie du continent; mais il est facile de conclure de la route qu’il avoit suivie, de la latitude à laquelle il étoit arrivé, de la description même qu’il donne de cette côte, que c’étoit celle des Malouines. J’assurerais, avec non moins de fondement, que Beauchesne Goüin, revenant de la mer du Sud en 1700, a mouillé dans la partie orientale des Malouines, croyant être aux Sebaldes.--Voyage de Bougainville, 2d édit. 1772, tom. i. p. 63.

[2] Letters of Americus Vespucius, in Ramusio’s Collection, vol. i. fol. 128.

[3] The name America was not given before the year 1507. (Herrera, Dec. 1, 7, 5.)

[4] The Falklands are beyond fifty-one degrees of south latitude.

[5] In 1507 (the admiral Christopher Columbus being dead), Americus Vespucius was taken into the service of the King of Spain, with the title of ‘Pilote mayor,’ and was employed in making charts of the new discoveries, which gave him an opportunity to affix his own name to the land of South America. (Herrera, Dec. 1, 7, 5.)

[6] 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.

[7] This rock was seen by Hawkins, and named by him ‘White Conduit.’ Now it is called Eddystone.

[8] “Fortunately, it is on this maloon, or island, that bullocks and horses are found running wild.”--(Weddell, p. 97.)

[9] Now called Tussac by the sealers and colonists.

[10] The fact was, it was injudiciously situated, and therefore seldom visited, except by a few fishermen.

[11] Papers relative to the origin and present state of the questions pending with the United States of America on the subject of the Malvinas (Falkland Islands). Translated and printed at Buenos Ayres in 1832.

[12] See note in preceding page.

[13] Idem.

[14] Idem.

[15] See note, page 235.

[16] Not long before the Clio arrived, there had been a mutiny in the garrison, and the Buenos Ayrean commanding officer had been barbarously murdered. In the early part of 1834, Mr. Brisbane fell a victim to treachery. These fatal occurrences will be mentioned again in the course of my narrative.