[moo]

I didn't say atoll. Migrate doesn't mean you have to colonize every way point.The op also said "fishing expedition" which doesn't mean colonization. You don't have to marry the first person you have sex with either. Tule reeds are common in North America. Totora reeds grow in South America. Chumash regularly traveled 22 miles between what is now Catalina Islands and LA. The Chumash are best known for their sewn-plank canoe called a tomol that ranged up to 30 feet long. Cuba is 93 miles from Florida. Pre-Columbian South Americans built reed boats. Heyerdahl went 5,000 miles across the Pacific in a reed boat. Falkland Islands are 300 miles east of South American southern Patagonia coast. Pre-Incan pottery shards found in the Galapagos by Heyerdahl and Arne SkjolsvoId during an expedition to the archipelago in January 1953. Galapagos are 563 miles west of Ecuador. Regarding the Galapagos, Incan oral history tells of king Tupac Yupanqui voyage to the west and discovery of two "Islands of Fire." The Galapagos were not colonized either. Not everything in Caribbean Islands is tropical paradise. From worldwildlife.org: "Caribbean islands are often portrayed as lush tropical paradises, but Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are better described as desert scrub. The three islands, known locally as the ABC’s, are located 40-80 km off the coast of Venezuela just 12 N of the equator. Due to their leeward location, the islands receive only 350-550 mm of rain per year."

[dboreham]

The Falklands are a pretty poor example imho. The fact that people were not there does not imply they couldn't get there. If they had no sheep, there would be no point staying.

[moo]

I was responding to the assertion that European colonizers were discovering and claiming islands, specifically the Malvinas, from the backyard of indigenous peoples, of which they were totally ignorant.