CHAPTER II.
CAPTAIN COOK'S PREDECESSORS.
I.
Roggewein—The little that is known of him—The uncertainty of his discoveries—Easter Island—The Pernicious Islands—The Baumans—New Britain—Arrival in Batavia—Byron—Stay at Rio Janeiro and Port Desire—Entrance into Straits of Magellan—Falkland Islands and Port Egmont—The Fuegians—Mas a Fuero—Disappointment Islands—Danger Islands—Tinian—Return to Europe.
As early as 1669, Roggewein the elder had petitioned the Dutch West India Company for three armed vessels, in order to prosecute his discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. His project was favourably received, but a coolness in the relations between Spain and Holland forced the Batavian government to relinquish the expedition for a time. Upon his death-bed Roggewein forced from his son Jacob a promise to carry the plan he had conceived into execution.
Circumstances, over which he had no control, for a long time hindered the fulfilment of his promise. It was only after several voyages in the Indian seas, after having even been judge in the Batavian Justice Court, that at length Jacob Roggewein was in a position to take the necessary steps with the West India Company. We have no means of finding out Roggewein's age in 1721, or of ascertaining what were his claims to the command of an expedition of discovery. Most biographical dictionaries honour him with but a slight mention, perhaps of a couple of lines, and Fleurieu, in his learned and exhaustive account of the Dutch navigator, was unable to find out anything certain about him.
Moreover, the narrative of the voyage was written not by Roggewein, but by a German named Behrens. We may, therefore, with some justice, attribute the obscurities and contradictions of the particulars given, and their general want of accuracy, rather to the narrator than to the navigator. It even appears sometimes (and this is far from improbable), that Roggewein was ignorant of the voyages and discoveries of his predecessors and contemporaries.
Upon the 21st of August, 1721, three vessels set sail from Texel, under his command. They were, theEagle of 36 guns, and with a crew of 111 men, theTienhoven of 28 guns and 100 men, Captain James Bauman, and the galleyAfrican of 14 guns and a crew of 60 men, Captain Henry Rosenthal. Their voyage across the Atlantic afforded no particulars of interest. Touching at Rio, Roggewein went in search of an island which he named Auke's Magdeland, and which would appear to be the same as the Land of the Virgin, Hawkins' Virginia, and the Archipelago of the Falkland, or Malouine Islands, unless indeed it was Southern Georgia. Although these islands were then well known, it would appe
