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Antonio de la Roche and the discovery of South Georgia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 June 2023

Gordon Campbell Open the ORCID record for Gordon Campbell [Opens in a new window]
Gordon Campbell*
Affiliation:
University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK
*
Corresponding Author: Gordon Campbell, Email: leb@le.ac.uk
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Abstract

This article seeks to investigate the claim that South Georgia may have been first discovered in April 1675 by an English merchant called Antonio de la Roche. There are two unresolved questions: whether La Roche was the first to see the island, and whether the island that he saw was South Georgia. I introduce a third uncertainly by questioning whether Antonio de la Roche ever existed. He does not appear in the records of the French churches in London, and the sole source of his biography is the work of a fabricator, Francisco de Seyxas.

Keywords

Antonio de la RocheSouth GeorgiaFrancisco de Seyxas y Lovera
Type
Research Note
Information
Polar Record , Volume 59 , 2023 , e20
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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