Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

232 FALKLAND ISLANDS. of Beauchesne Gouin 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 com- pliment 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 isles sont sans doute les memes que celles que le Chevalier Richard Hawkins d^couvrit en 1593." The Spaniards adopted the French name, slightly altered, by changing Malouines into Malvinas: even now the term ' Maloon,' a corruption of Malouine, * 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 * " Fortunately, it is an this maloon,,or island, that bullocks and horses are found running wild." — (Weddell, p. 97.)