William Ambrosia Cowley was a 17th century
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
buccaneerThe buccaneers were pirates who attacked Spanish and French shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
who surveyed the
Galápagos IslandsThe Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador...
during his circumnavigation of the world, and published the first chart of the islands in 1684. In his diary he reported the discovery of the mythical
Pepys IslandPepys Island is a phantom island, said to lie about 230 miles/390 kilometres north of the Falkland Islands. It was first described by Ambrose Cowley in 1684, presumably mistaking the coordinates of one of the Falkland Islands, and named by him for Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty. Other...
, allegedly situated north of the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located approximately from the coast of mainland South America, from mainland Antarctica, and from Africa. There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, as well as 776 smaller islands...
, prompting a number of mariners to look in vain for the nonexistent land.
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William Ambrosia Cowley was a 17th century
EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
buccaneerThe buccaneers were pirates who attacked Spanish and French shipping in the Caribbean Sea during the late 17th century.The term buccaneer is now used generally as a synonym for pirate...
who surveyed the
Galápagos IslandsThe Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador...
during his circumnavigation of the world, and published the first chart of the islands in 1684. In his diary he reported the discovery of the mythical
Pepys IslandPepys Island is a phantom island, said to lie about 230 miles/390 kilometres north of the Falkland Islands. It was first described by Ambrose Cowley in 1684, presumably mistaking the coordinates of one of the Falkland Islands, and named by him for Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty. Other...
, allegedly situated north of the
Falkland IslandsThe Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located approximately from the coast of mainland South America, from mainland Antarctica, and from Africa. There are two main islands, East Falkland and West Falkland, as well as 776 smaller islands...
, prompting a number of mariners to look in vain for the nonexistent land.