Antonio de la Roche and the discovery of South Georgia

• Published in: Polar Record
• Main Author: Campbell, Gordon
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2023
• Subjects: General Earth and Planetary Sciences; Ecology; Geography, Planning and Development; Polar Record
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003224742300013x; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S003224742300013X

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.