DID CAPTAIN COOK FIRST DISCOVER THE SANDWICH ISLANDS?
In a French atlas, dated 1762, in my possession, amongst the numerous non-existing islands laid down in the map of the Pacific, and the still more numerous cases of omission inevitable at so early a period of Polynesian discovery, there is inserted an island styled "I. St. François," or "I. S. Francisco," which lies in
about 20° N. and 224° E. from the meridian of Ferro, and, of course, almost exactly in the situation of Owhyhee. That this large and lofty group may have been seen by some other voyager long before, is far from improbable; but, beyond a question, Cooke was the first to visit, describe, and lay them down correctly in our maps. Professor Meyen, however, as quoted in Johnston's Physical Atlas, mentions these islands in terms which would almost lead one to suppose that he, the Professor, considered them to have been known to the Spaniards in Anson's time or earlier, and that they had been regular calling places for the galleons in those days! It is difficult to conceive such a man capable of such a mistake; but if he did not suppose them to have been discovered before Cook's voyage in 1778, his words are singularly calculated to deceive the reader on that point.
J. S. Warden.