Antarctica Travel Guide, Educative Discovery. The Attractiveness of the Earth, and Variety of its Nature. A Book. Although legend had told of a vast southern land referred to as Terra Australis since the 1st century AD, the first sighting of Antarctica is invariably attributed to Imperial Russian Navy captain Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1820, with Captain James Cook having missing the continent by only 75 miles in 1773. The first landing...