Page "History of the Falkland Islands" Paragraph 8

Though definite proof is lacking, there is evidence that the islands were first discovered by an unrecorded Portuguese expedition before Magellan set sail.

The evidence is found in two early maps, one made by the Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel in about 1522, the very first map to show the Falklands, the other a French copy of a Portuguese map bought in Lisbon by André Thévet ( 1516-1590 ), a Franciscan friar and prolific writer on many subjects ; this copy is now in the manuscript of a large unpublished work by Thevet in the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris.

These two maps of Portuguese origin suggest that it was Portuguese navigators who first saw and mapped the Falklands.

It is not unusual that no written record of their expedition survives ; voyages of discovery in those days were often national or commercial secrets, and unless a journal survived, they are completely unknown today.