LaBorde, Jean Benjamin de
Jean-Benjamin De LaBorde (1734-1794) was best known as a musician from the age of 14 but was also a historian and cartographer(a). In his Histoire abregeee de la Mer du Sud [1266]+, it appears he was the first to suggest a sunken continent in the South Pacific with New Zealand and other island groups being today’s remnants>of a lost land comparable with Plato’s Atlantis.
However, Atlantisforschung suggests that LaBorde was more inclined to associate America with Atlantis(b).<
Unfortunately, his musical and scientific interests were curtailed when his association with Louis XV led him to the guillotine.
[1266]+ https://books.google.com.vc/books?
(a) Wayback Machine (archive.org)
(b) Jean Benjamin de La Borde – Atlantisforschung.de (atlantisforschung-de.translate.goog) *