Ambrose Cowley

William Ambrosia Cowley, also known as Ambrose Cowley and Captain Cowley, was a 17th-century English buccaneer who surveyed the Galápagos Islands during his 1683–1686 circumnavigation of the world while serving under several captains such as John Eaton, John Cook, and later Edward Davis. Cowley drafted the first chart of the islands in 1684, first published with the account of his voyage in 1699. In his diary he reported the discovery of the phantom Pepys Island, allegedly situated north of the Falkland Islands, prompting a number of mariners to look in vain for the nonexistent rock.

Map of the Galapagos Islands as described by Cowley in 1684.

The map of Cowley's circumnavigation of the world in the 1699 first edition of William Hack's Collection of Original Voyages

References

• William Ambrosia Cowley. Cowley's Voyage Round the Globe, in Collection of Original Voyages, ed. William Hacke. London: James Knapton, 1699.
• 1686 “A Short Account of My Voyage Round this Terestiall Globe of the World from Virginia to England and through the Great South Sea.” In Miscellanea Curiosa. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society Mss1. T8525a3, Vol IV (letter written by Cowley describing his voyage).
• 1687 “The Voyage of Capt. Cowley. Papist.” In Lambeth Ms. 642: Codex Chartaceus. London: Lambeth Palace Library
• 1688 Cowley's Voyage Round the World. London: British Library. Sloane MS. 1050.
• 1698 “A Journal kept by Capt. Wm. Cowley on board the Ship Nicholas of London Capt. John Eaton Commander. A Voyage from Gorgona Island … to … Holland.”
• and “An abstract of a journal kept by Capt. Cowley from Cape Charles … to … the Island of Gorgona.” In William Hacke, Handwritten Journal of Pirate Bartholomew Sharpe. New York: Morgan Library. Ms. MA 3310.
• William Dampier. A New Voyage Round the World. 1697.