Land, or a mountain-shaped cloud
sighted by Edward Davis, buccaneer
near the coast of Chile (maybe Peru)
and never seen again.
Dampier thought it could be
the missing continent
its high mountains and untapped mines
expected to yield silver and gold,
new spices and drugs,
richer than New Holland
with its desolate coastline
and annoying flesh-flies.
Captain Sam Wallis and his ship Dolphin
searched eleven days
discovering Tahiti instead.
Ship’s master, George Robertson
saw it in the distance
the long wishd for southern continent.
By his estimation, the crew
of a long canoe leaving Tahiti at sunrise
could reach the continent by sunset:
the same trade wind will
Bring them back next day if they want to come.
He’d seen double canoes arriving,
penned sketches in his journal
of an impressive, fair-skinned people
bearing great resemblance to the Jews.
Perhaps the missing continent,
Davis Land and the Jewish enclave
were one and the same.
de Bougainville,
having read Dampier and de Brosses
and armed with Vaugondy’ s map,
found no trace of it.