The Island of Giants, Samson, and the Falklands-Malvinas

Recently, it was Falkland Islands' Day in the UK, commemorating the discovery of the islands by John Davis on August 14, 1592. As expected, with these islands claimed by Argentina, as the Islas Malvinas (claim that, unfortunately, led the last military dictatorship to invade them in 1982, in a stupid and sensless war that caused an irreparable breach with the islanders as well as hundreds of young men, dead and maimed, on both sides, Britain, and Argentina), their discovery is also contested.

The Argentine side argues that they were discovered by a cartographer named Andrés de San Martín who, on board of the ship San Antonio, made the first map of the islands. This ship was part of Magellan's voyage to discover a soutern pass from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean, to reach the spice islands of the Far East. In this post we will look into this alleged discovery.

The Story of the San Antonio

When Magellan left Spain in 1519, he had five ships, Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepción, Santiago, and Victoria (the only one to make it back to Spain after sailing around the globe). Of these, the Santiago capsized on the coast of Patagonia at the mouth of the Santa Cruz River in 1520 with no loss of life. y la Santiago. The four remaining ships set sail after wintering in San Julian, in what is now Argentina's Santa Cruz province and entered the Strait of Magellan in October 1520.

Magellan sent the Concepción and the San Antonio into the Strait to explore it. They reached a spot called Cape Forward, that jutted out into it, and marked a place where there were two separate channels to follow. They returned, reported their findings to Magellan who advanced with his fleet to the Cape.

Magellan decided to send the San Antonio and Concepción to explore the two channels, but he first called his pilots and captains to a meeting. Esteban Gómez, the pilot of the San Antonio (which was commanded by Alvaro de Mesquita, Magellans nephew) expressed his point of view: the fleet lacked supplies and was not equipped to face the stormy seas that lay ahead. He proposed that they turn back, and return to Spain. Magellan would have none of this. He ordered the two ships to proceed ahead into the channels. The Concepción returned, but the San Antonio vanished. Magellan waited for it, and finally decided to head west into the Pacific. The loss of the San Antonio was a blow, with a displacement of 120 tons, it was the largest ship in the fleet, and it was packed with supplies and food. This led to famine for the remaining ships as they sailed across the Pacific.

What Magellan didn't know was that the San Antonio had turned around, and in the dark of night, sailed past the ships in the Strait, and headed by the route of Guinea (Africa) to Spain. The crew, led by Gómez seized Mesquita and took control of the ship on November 8, 1520. They reached Seville and complained about the behavior of Mesquita and Magellan, accusing them of treason against the King of Spain (both were Portuguese). Mesquita was sent to prision, and only released when the Victoria returned to Spain in 1522 and its crew, led by Sebastián Elcano told the truth.

During the return trip, from the Strait, to Africa, is where the mythical story of the discovery of the Falklands arose.

There is No written record or map or entry in the ship's log mentioning any islands. But the Argentine version is that they discovered some islands during a stormy spell, and named them San Antón Islands, or Sanson (Samson) Islands.

An article published in the Boletín de la Socieded Geográfica de Madrid, 1899 Volume 41, Annex VIII, p 212 in Pigafetta's First Voyage Around the World quotes a contemporary letter written at the time of the arrival of the San Antonio to Seville:"prendieron al dicho Mezquita en ocho de Noviembre del dicho año veinte é vinieron derechamente á este puerto... Sevilla 12 de Mayo 1521" ("They arrested the said Mezquita on the eighth of November of the said year '20 and came directly to this port... Seville, May 12, 1521") no reports of islands or anything along their voyage back to Spain. They didn't even head north, to San Julián to rescue two men (Cartagena and Calmette) who had been cast asho, in exile, by Magellan to punish them (Cartagena was the King's overseer, and Calmette a priest) for mutiny.

The islands, were not mentioned during the following expeditions to the Strait, conducted by Spanish navigators. This is added proof that they had not been discovered.

Thevet

The map often attributed to the San Antonio is, in fact, the work of André Thevet (1502?–1590). Thevet was a Frenchman, a Franciscan friar, and cosmographer to several kings of France. He traveled extensively and visited South America in 1555. Upon his return to France, he published his experiences in the books "Les singularitez de la France Antarctique" (1557) and "Cosmographie Universelle" (1575). I have discussed Thevet in my book, because he mentioned two strange Patagonian creatures, the Succarath and the Pyrassouppi.

Thevet also wrote a book titled "Le grand Insulaire et pilotage d'André THEVET, Angoumoisin, cosmographe du Roy, dans lequel sont contenus plusieurs plants d'isles habitées et deshabitées et description d'icelles" (The Great Insular Book and Pilotage by André Thevet, native of Angoulême and Cosmographer to the King, containing various plans of inhabited and uninhabited islands and descriptions thereof), a description of the most important islands in the World. It is a manuscript, unpublished, and the original handwritten text can be seen online here. It mentions on page 269, the Isles des Geants (Islands of Giants) he states that they were discovered by the Portuguese sailors that accompanied Magellan on his voyage and that a captain from the Portuguese city of Lisbon told him about them. See the text below:

He included the map, naming them Samson Islands - Giants Islands, shown below (see plate on p. 268)

In the Islario general de todos las islas del mundo (General list of all the islands in the world) by Alonso de Santa Cruz (1505-1567), first published in 1541, the author mentions the islands of Patagonia as reported by Magellan and (see it here online), on page 552, says "...they discovered some islands that were to the east of San Julian, by eighteen leagues and they named them Islands of Samson and the Ducks because on them they found many and very fat that could hardly walk, and half-plucked of which they took many for their voyage and are at 51 degrees of latitude..."

The location is far too close to the coast of Argentina to be the Falkland-Malvinas; 18 leagues is 87 km or 54 miles. The islands are 571 km - 354 mi from San Julian.

The ducks were probably penguins. Looking at the map published by de Santa Cruz, reproduced below, you can see Cabo Blanco, located at 47° S on the upper left side of the map — north is left, south is right (see it in Google maps), a Rio de los Trabajos river (perhaps modern Rio Deseado), and nearby, the Sanson Islands.

Interestingly, just south of Rio Deseado is a Provincial Natural Park, called Isla Pinguino (Penguin Island) with some other smaller islands, that protects a penguin colony there (see it in Google maps). Could these bre the Samson-Ducks islands?

The name Samson, and Giants Islands surely came from the large-sized Patagonian natives, the Patagons reported by Magellan's expedition. Samson, is mentioned in the Bible (Book of Judges ch. 13-16) as an extremely strong man, so he is comparable to the large, muscular Patagonian natives.

Summing it up, I doubt that the San Antonio, or Magellan's ships set eyes on the Malvinas-Falklands Islands. Thevet probably took note of de Santa Cruz's Islands book and included it in his own version.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2026 by Austin Whittall © 

Across the Atlantic - The gateway to South America (Cabral & Americo Vespucio)

The Portuguese worked systematically to open a sailing route to the spices, silk and riches of Asia, bypassing the Middle East, where the local merchants held a tight grip on Oriental goods and made good profit margins. That region had become part of the Ottoman Empire since the 1300s, and finally defeated and conquered the Eastern Roman Empire in 1453 when the Turks took Constantinople, renaming it Istanbul.

The Portuguese had been looking for a route to Asia around Africa and had developed their navigation skills since the early 1400s. They had begun by advancing into the Atlantic, discovering Madeira Island (1419) and the Azores Islands (1427). The Canary Islands were known to the Europeans, and Castille had taken them starting in the early 1400s. The Portuguese made their way along the African Coast, discovering the Cape Verde Islands (1450s), the Gulf of Guinea and Santo Tomé and Principe Islands (1470), and finally Cape of Good Hope (1488) in South Africa, and a route along the Eastern coast of Africa, and the Indian Ocean into India in 1498. Later they would extend their reach into South East Asia, what is now Indonesia and the Philippines, Taiwan, which they named Formosa, and Macao where they established a post, and held onto it until 1999.

The Discovery of Brazil

The official version is the following: An expedition led by Pedro Alvares de Cabral set off for India in the year 1500. Columbus had discovered America 8 years earlier (in 1492). After passing by the Canary Islands on March 14, 1500, they set sail towards Cabo Verde Islands which they reached on March 22. They crossed the Equator on April 9, 1500, and to avoid the Equatorial calms or "doldrums" (an are close to the Equator with lack of wind, or very light winds), they moved away from the African coast. The wind and the east-to-west South Equatorial Sea Current took them across the South Atlantic and on April 22 they saw seaweeds and the next day, they saw a mountain, Monte Pascoal (Easter Mountain) named so because it was discovered on Easter. They had "accidentally" reached the Brazilian coast, which "what a surprise" was also within the Portuguese sphere of influence, as determined by the Treaty of Tordesillas.

The use of oceanic currents to cross the seas was a technique developed by the Portuguese known as "Volta do mar" (around the sea) in the South Atlantic it was a counter clockwise circuit from the Gulf of Guinea westwards to Brazil (South Equatorial Current) south along the Brazilian coast pushed by the Brazilian Current and then to the southeast, towards the southern tip of Africa. They used it on their Portugal to Asia journeys. A similar route was used by sailors in the North Atlantic as there is a current rotating clockwise.

The cunning Portuguese diplomats had secured a Treaty (Tordesillas Treaty) with Castille and Aragon (Spain) in 1493, by which the Pope divided the world into two hemispheres, one would be Portuguese, the other Spanish. The meridian that divided the globe was set (as requested by Portugal) 370 leagues west of the Cabo Verde Islands. This is roughly 1785 km or 1110 mi. wests of these islands, and cuts right through the northeastern tip of Brazil. The Portuguese must have known back in 1493 that Brazil was there, and they wanted to secure their piece of the New World that had just been discovered by Columbus.

The antipodes of this meridian sliced across the eastern side of Papua New Guinea and Australia, and Japan and eastern Siberia. The Pope had excluded all other nations from the discovery and trade with Asia. The Dutch and French were not happy.

The Portuguese may have discovered South America by accident during one of their voyages along the coast of Africa between 1450 and 1490. They then found the currents and winds that allowed them to return to Brazil, and developed the "Volta do Mar" technique. The Spaniards were unaware of Brazil's existence in 1493.

Later, Portugal managed to breakout from the constraints of the 370 leagues and expanded their foothold in Brazil into the fifth largest country in the world, spanning most of South America, a country with a surface area of 8.515.767 km² - 3,287,956 sq. mi.

I prepared the following map. It showed the sea currents, I added the site of Cabral's landing in 1500, and the Tordesillas Treaty Meridian, with Spain to the West and Portugal to the East.

South Atlantic Gyre, Tordesillas Treaty. A. Whittall, based on Source

Americo Vespucio and Patagonia

Americo Vespucio, the man who gave America his name (and the first person to realize that Columbus had discovered a new continent), navigated across the Atlantic several times, on one occasion with Spanish ships to the Caribbean, and later with the Portuguese.

According to Pohl and Loeb (1), in one of these journeys, in May 1501 he left Portugal, and sailed along the coast of Brazil to the meridian of the Tordesillas Treaty at a spot named Cananea River (modern town of Cananea in the state of Sao Paulo roughly 25°S. See it in Google maps).

Continuing south along the coast in 1501 would mean that they were the first to explore the area, and that they would enter the Spanish sphere of influence. The expedition continued (this is disputed by some scholars) after Gonzalo Coelho the Portuguese commander resigned his post and Americo took over (as a Florentine citizen he was supposedly not affected by the Treaty).

The ships navigated not too close to the shores of South America and supposedly discovered the Rio de la Plata (River Plate) named River Jordan, then along the coast of Patagonia to Porto San Giuliano (very likely San Julián where Magellan wintered in 1519-20). Americo stated they reached 50°S, almost the latitude of the Strait of Magellan. The weather turned sour and the expedition returned to Lisbon persuaded that America was a continent that ran from north to south on the western side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Vespucio wrote that he had sailed to a southern latitude of fifty degrees (source) and this is reasonable since he also stated that they had sailed 600 leagues south of Cabo Frías (close to Rio de Janeiro), this would take them right down to the Strait of Magellan.

For those interested in the Argentine and Patagonian part of Vespucio's journey see this El descubrimiento del río de la Plata y la Patagonia por Vespucio en 1502 - Pruebas y concordancias By Roberto Levillier. Argentina Austral, 1952, Vol. 24 No.256.

Could the Ancient seafaring nations of the Mediterranean have used the same route that Cabral or Vespucio used? The Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans didn't have ships as versatile as those used by the Iberian people like caravels, and lacked the compass and astrolabe used by the Spaniards and Portuguese. However, the Vikings managed to weather the choppy North Atlantic, and the Ancient navigators sailed around Africa, to "Thule" and traded with Britain and Gaul, so why should we have doubts about the navigating skills of the ancient Mediterranean people?

Sources.
(1) Americo Vespucio—Pioneer Celo-Navigator And Geographer. By Frederick J. Pohl and Captain Leonard B. Loeb, U. S. Naval Reserve (Ret.) April 1957 Proceedings Vol. 83/4/650.

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall © 

More on Horses in Patagonia in the 1580s

Another post on the possibility of extant megafaunal horses in South America in the 1500s.

This continues my previous post on the subject.

I have found some references (more below) stating that Spanish explorers sighted natives riding horses in the region next to the Strait of Magellan in 1580. I decided to check the original sources and was surprised to find out that it was not so!:

Sarmiento de Gamboa 1580s

The account of the adventures and exploration of the Strait of Magellan can be found in Sarmiento de Gamboa's book [1]. And, there is an interesting part covering the interrogation that Tomé Hernandez faced in Lima, Peru in 1620 (forty years after the events).

Tome had traveled under the command of Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa to settle the Strait of Magellan in 1581. The expedition managed to set up two small villages but the ships with supplies never arrived and this doomed the colonies. The settlers were left to die of starvation and disease. The natives accosted them. And very few were alive two and a half years later when English privateer Thomas Cavendish sailed by and offered to take them to Chile.

All except one refused (they were Catholics, Cavendish an English protestant and enemy of Spain), Tomé.

Many years later, the Spaniards, worried about the intentions of the English regarding Patagonia and, also, wanting to know more about that mysterious area, interrogated him.

The image below highlights the interrogation regarding horses. I will translate it:

When Asked: Do the Indians rode horses and if there are any in that land? He Said: That whenever he saw them, they were on foot and that he saw no horses at all

No horses in 1580. From [1]

Darwin 1830s

However Charles Darwin, in his "Voyage of the Beagle" wrote [2] about the "Indians" by the Strait of Magellan:

"In the time of Sarmiento (1580), these Indians had bows and arrows, now long since disused; they then also possessed some horses.
This is a very curious fact, showing the extraordinarily rapid multiplication of horses in South America. The horse was first landed at Buenos Ayres in 1537, and the colony being then for a time deserted, the horse ran wild;* in 1580, only forty-three years afterwards, we hear of them at the Strait of Magellan! Mr. Low informs me, that a neighbouring tribe of foot-Indians is now changing into horse-Indians: the tribe at Gregory Bay giving them their worn-out horses, and sending in winter a few of their best skilled men to hunt for them. [2]

I went over the text of Gamboa's book and he never mentions horses, only (on page 95 see pdf link below [1]), "deer" and "anta" (that is, tapir... I have posted on tapir in Patagonia elsewhere.)

So, in all fairness, Darwin misinterpreted Sarmiento's text assuming there were horses here. Sarmiento never mentioned horses. Other Spanish authors of the time did, but not Sarmiento.

Sources

[1] xxvii Page Viage al Estrecho de Magallanes por el Capitan Pedro Sarmiento de Gambóa en ... By Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa 1768

[2] Darwin, C. R. 1845. Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N. 2d edition. London: John Murray. pp 232

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2013 by Austin Whittall ©