A large number of seventeenth-and eighteenth-century maps show a mysterious "Davis's Land" in the Southeast Pacific. The reputed discoverer of "Davis' Land" was a buccaneer, Edward Davis, who commanded the ship Batchelor's Delight  in 1687.James Burney, the eighteenth-century maritime historian, thought Davis  was a Dutchman but his associates on the ship were British. (fn.1)  Davis was one of a number of pirates who operated off the Pacific coast of America at this time, sacking towns, burning, and plundering.

Lionel Wafer, a surgeon who accompanied Davis provides an account of Davis' discovery in his book A New Voyage and Description of the Isthmus of Panama (London, 1699). (fn. 2) Wafer's account explains that in 1687 Davis sailed from the Galapagos Islands for Islas Juan Fernindez off the coast of Chile. From a position in latitude 12º 30' S and about 150 leagues from the South America coast they steered South and by East, half Easterly until, in latitude 27º 20' S, they fell in with a small, low, sandy island about two hours before daylight. They heard great roaring noise like that of the sea beating upon the shore. As a precaution the captain put the ship about and then stood in again after daylight to within quarter of a mile of the shore. The morning was clear and they saw that the island was flat and "without the guard of any rocks." To the westward, about one league they saw a range of high land, apparently islands extending over about 14 to 16 leagues from which came many birds. Wafer and others would have gone ashore but Davis would not permit them. Wafer wrote that the small island was almost due east (a mistake for west) 500 leagues from Copiapo (in 27º 30' S) and 600 leagues from the Galapagos Islands.

Another account is given by the famous navigator William Dampier who had sailed with Davis previously; Dampier received a verbal statement from Davis and recorded it in his book A New Voyage Round the World. [3] In his book Dampier confirms Wafer's statements including the 500 leagues distance from Copiapo.

Dampier also explains that the "high land" trending out of sight "might probably be the coast of Terra Australis Incognita." (fn. 4) A number of Pacific explorers later tried to find "Davis's Land" without success. But it found its way into maps in approximately the same latitude as Isla San Felix and Isla San Ambrosio and 16º to the west of them. These two islands, located in 26º 20' S, 80º W, are traditionally believed to have been discovered by the Spanish Pilot Juan Fernandez in 1574. (fn. 5)

In 1721 the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen discovered Easter Island while looking for "Davis's Land." In the journal of his 1721-22 voyage, Roggeveen clearly indicates that his discovery of Easter Island was unconnected with "Davis's Land". (fn. 6) But this did not prevent some eighteenth-century geographers and ex­plorers from identifying Easter Island with "Davis's Land." Robertson's journal of Samuel Wallis' voyage in the Dolphin 1766-1768 discloses that Wallis and Robertson confused Easter Island with "Davis's Land;" entries made before Wallis discovered Tahiti confirm this.(fn.7)

The problem of identifying "Davis's Land" has interested a long line of eminent Pacific explorers and geographers. Alexander Dalrymple, the English hydrographer who was obsessed with the idea of a great continent existing in the South Pacific believed that Easter Island and "Davis's Land" were the same island. Imagining that Easter Island was the "high land" west of Davis's discovery of the low, sandy, island, Dalrymple inscribed the names "Davis's Land or Easter I." and "Sandy I." (See map left.) beside islands in his famous 1767 "Chart of the South Pacifick Ocean'. James Burney agreed with Dalrymple's ideas on "Davis's Land." (fn. 8)

An explanation of "Davis's Land" was entered by Philip Carteret in his Swallow journal while he was in the vicinity of the islands Isla San Felix and Isla San Ambrosio, in May, 1767. (fn. 9) Carteret reasoned from distances and details of Davis's course sailed, provided by Wafer's account, that Davis in 1687 reached latitude 27º 20' S, not 500 leagues but 200 leagues to the west of Copiapo. The islands of Isla San Felix and Isla San Ambrosio lie very approximately in this position (in 26º 20' S, 900 kilometres west). In February 1768 Louis Antoine de Bougainville, sailing in the area, independently came to the same conclusion. Bougainville mentions in his narrative that he was referring to Bellin's chart when he for the land. (fn 10) (See detail - left.) was also accepted the great French explorer Jean-Francois Galaup de la Perouse. (fn. 11) An entry in James Cook's Endeavour journal shows that Cook, who carried Dalrymple's Pacific chart on his 1768-71 voyage, was skeptical of Dalrymple's idea of "Davis's Land" and Easter Island being the same. (fn.12)

In 1825, Frederick Beechey, attempting a solution of the "Davis's Land" puzzle, sailed in HMS Blossom to the island of Sala-y-Gómez  located in 26º 28' S, 102 8' W, about 2,700 kilometers west of Isla San Felix and about 35 degrees west of Copiapo. The island bears the name of the Spanish commander who discovered it in 1793.(fn.13) Beechey's journal includes interesting information and comment on "Davis's Land," ocean currents and the island of Sala-y-Gómez (fn.14) Beechey found that Easter Island which he thought might qualify as the "high land"  seen  to  the  west  by  Davis,  was  invisible  from Salay-Gómez. Writing in 1948, Hugh Carrington suggested that Wafer made a literary slip in giving 500 leagues instead of 500 miles and pointed out that Isla San Felix and Isla San Ambrosio are about 500 miles due west from Copiapo. (fn.15) Helen Wallis wrote in 1965 that she agreed with Carrington about the literary slip and concluded that Carteret's explanation was almost certainly correct. (fn. 16) J.C. Beaglehole noted in his 1968 work on Cook that he also agreed with Carrington. (fn.17) Andrew Sharp, who studied the "Davis's Land" problem in detail, wrote in 1969 that although he accepted the Isla San FeIix and Isla San Ambrosio explanation it could  possibly  be  argued that  "Davis's Land"  was  the  island of  Sala-y-Gómez and that supposed land to the west was a cloud bank. (fn. I8)  D.H.K. Spate, in 1983, wrote that Davis probably saw Sala-y-Gómez  and beyond it high banks of cumulus, commonly mistaken for land. (fn.19)

Summary and conclusion

At the time that Carteret put forward his suggested solution for the identity of "Davis's Land" Sala-y-Gómez was unknown. But it is difficult to understand why nineteenth- and twentieth-century investigators supported the Isla San Felix and Isla San Ambrosio idea when a number of important aspects of Wafer's and Dampier's descriptions fit in with known details concerning Sala-y-G6mez. In all probability James Burney would have preferred Sala-y-G6mez in his 1816 analysis of the problem if he had known about the island; he did not doubt that ships making passage from the Galapagos Islands through the Southeast trade-winds could come into the vicinity of Easter Island. (fn. 20)

National Geographic Society maps and other Isla Ambrosio data do not relate to Wafer's description "low, sandy, small" and "without the guard of any rocks." The island is about 3.2 kilometres in length and a National Geographic Society map portrays rocks on two sides. (fn.21) An island with a peak reaching to 479 metres is hardly low and flat! And Wafer mentions that the morning was clear. Isla San Felix which is 19.3 kilometres northwest is also about 3.2 kilometres in length with off-shore islets and rocks. On the other hand, Sala-y-G6mez is shown in National Geographic Society maps without off-shore rocks, (fn. 22) and it is low, flat and sandy; at its greatest height it is about 29 metres and its maximum length is about 800 metres. It is described in the British Admiralty Pacific Islands Pilot as an islet of little more than "a heap of dark brown volcanic rocks, covered in places with whitish earth and sand. (fn. 23) An Admiralty reference to several reefs on which the sea breaks with violence, might well link with Wafer's "great roaring noise. (fn. 24) Thor Heyerdahl, famous for his Kon-Tiki expedition across part of the South· east Pacific describes Sala-y-G6mez as "the barren bird island". (fn. 25)

The Peru current sets in a south-westerly direction between Peru and Sala-y­G6mez. Since Davis would have been unaware of the average set of the current his estimates of distances are understandably imprecise. Beechley comments in his journal:

Beechey provides a number of examples of vessels being carried westward from' their supposed position plus his own example of experiencing in eighteen days a set of 270 miles between Islas Juan Fernandez and Easter Island. (fn. 27)   Davis was himself an excellent authority on his own shortcomings in navigation. Wafer  relates that when Davis was off the east coast of South America, in the latitude of Rio de le Plata, his estimate of being 100 leagues from the coast proved wrong by a considerable amount; by his later reckoning he was 500 leagues off land. (fn. 28) If Wafer's "high land" to the west is satisfactorily explained as being a cloud bank, the only remaining part of the problem requiring clarification is Wafer's description of Davis' course. The point is of minor importance compared with Sala-y-Gómez evidence reviewed above and the discussion on voyaging data Wafer's slip "east of Copiapo" for "west of Copiapo" suggests that perhaps made a similar error when referring to the course steered from latitude 12° 3 S. Probably Davis arrived at Sala-y-Gómez, aided by the Peru Current and the trade wind after steering a course south and west, half westerly. □

Footnotes

1 James Burney, A Chronological History of the Voyages and Discoveries in the South Sea or Pacific Ocean, vols. (London: G.& W. Nicol, 1816; Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1967),4: 209.

2 Reprinted in, L. E. Elliott Joyce, ed., A New Voyage & Description of the Isthmus of America by Lionel Wafer, Hakluyt Society Publications, 2d ser., vol. 73 (London, 1934), p. 125.

3 William Dampier, A New Voyage Round the World, second ed. corrected (London, 1697). This volume one of a two-volume work, the second volume entitled Voyages and Descriptions (London1699). The reference to Davis's discovery is vol. 1, p. 352.

4 Ibid.

5 Helen Wallis, ed., Carteret's Voyage Round the World 1766-1769, 2 vols. Hakluyt Society Publications, 2d ser., vols. 14-15 (London, 1965), I: 144 fn.

6 Andrew Sharp, ed., The Journal of Jacob Roggeveen (Oxford: Clarendon, 1970), p. 92.

7 Hugh Carrington, ed., The Discovery of Tahiti, Hakluyt Society Publications, 2d. ser., vol. 98 (London, 1948), p. 107.

8 Burney, 4:209-210.

9 Wallis, 1: 145.

10 Louis Antoine de Bougainville, A Voyage Round the World, John Reinhold Forster, trans. (London: Nourse & Davies, 1772; Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1967), pp. 201-202.

11 Jean-François Galaup de la Perouse A Voyage Round the World, 2 vols., L.A. Milet-Mureau, ed. (London: Robinson, 1799; Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1968), pp. 312-315. Carteret's name is not mentioned.

12 J. C. Beaglehole, ed., The Voyage of the Endeavor, The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vo!. I, second ed. Hakluyt Society Publications, extra series, vo!. 34 (London, 1968), p. 289.

13 Pacific Islands Pilot, 3 vols., 7th ed. (London: Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, 1946),3: 63.

14 F.W. Beechey, Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific, 2 vols. (London: Colburn & Bentley, 1831; Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1968), I: 36-40.

15 Carrington, pp. 274-76.

16 WaIlis, p. 52.

I7 Beaglehole, p. Ixxii.

18 Andrew Sharp, The D

iscovery of the Pacific Islands, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), pp. 89-90.

19 O.H.K. Spate, The Pacific Since Magellan. Volume 2, Monopolists and Freebooters (Canberra: Australia)

20 Burney, 4: 209.

21 Inset map "E" in "South America" Atlas Plate 25 (Washington: The National Geographic Society, 1960).

22 Ibid. inset map 'C'.

23 Pacific Islands Pilot, 3: 63.

24 Ibid.

25 Thor Heyerdahl, Sea Routes to Polynesia (London: Alien & Unwin, 1968), p. 85.

26 Beechey, I: 39.

27 Ibid.

28 Joyce, p. 128.