Carte du Detroit de Magellan dans laquel…

Rare and important chart of the Straights of Magellan, French edition, which is only found in the second edition of Hawkesworth’s account of the voyages of Wallis, Carteret, Byron and Cook. This chart is often mistakenly attributed to James Cook when in fact it is based, as the title states on Byron, Wallis and Carteret’s discoveries and information.

John Byron had set out from Plymouth 21st June 1764 with two frigates, the Dolphin (the first vessel to have a copper-sheathed keel) and the Tamar (under Captain Mouat) and accompanied by Philip Carteret as midshipman.

After arriving in Brazil on 13/9/64 Byron sailed south in severe storms and icy temperatures, passed Cape Blanco and coasted Patagonia as far as Port Desire on 14/11/64. The expedition then set out to look for the mysterious ‘Peys Island’, and when he failed to find it, he decided to try for Sebald’s Land but was forced back to the Strait of Magellan 19/12/64. At Cape Virgines he was beckoned ashore by some Patagonian Indians, later reporting that the Indians were eight feet tall, some reaching nine. This was the source of the myth of the ‘Patagonian Giants’ which endured for years.

From Hawkesworth, Relation des voyages entrepris par ordre de sa Majeste Britannique, actuellement regnante: