In December 1683 the British corsair William Ambrose Cowle(y), master of the Bachelor's Delight, a ship of 40 guns proceeding on a circumnavigation of the globe, discovered at a latitude stated as 47°S a previously uncharted and unpopulated island in the South Atlantic which he named "Pepys Island", for Samuel Pepys, Secretary to the Admiralty.

La Pérouse mentioned the seaweed and identified the flocks of birds as albatross and petrels which never approach land except to lay their eggs.

In conclusion to his 1839 introduction to the work of reference, Pedro de Angelis noted that the report of a mercantile master returning to Montevideo from the Falklands came to the attention of the Spanish Minister, who consulted with Don Jorge Juan, head of the Department of the Navy.

De Angelis concluded: "In view of the explicit statements made by those who have actually visited the island, those who deny its existence lack authenticity."

The modern editor of the work of reference, Professor Pesatti, dissents[2]: 42  from Pedro de Angelis, particularly on the basis of Cowle's sketch, a document which unfortunately he fails to produce in evidence: "The description of the island coincides in almost all details to the Falklands, and a sketch map by Cowle represents exactly the alignment of these islands with the central strait which divides them."