1773.
January. was a novelty to us, who were riled to fee all the other
aquatic birds o f this climate keep near the furface of
the fea. The next evening, and on the 29 th, we had fe-
veral porpeflfes. palling by us with amazing fwiftnefs in all
directions. They were pied, and had a large blotch of
white on the fides, which came almoft up to the back behind
the dorfal fin. Their velocity was at leaft triple that
of our veflels, though we now went at the rate of feven
knots and a half. In the afternoon we faw a fmall black
and white bird, which fome called an ice-bird, and others
a murr, and which feldom or never go out of fight of
land ; but as we could not come near enough to examine
it more accurately, we rather believed that it might be a
fpecies of petrel. We flood however off and on this night
and the next, finding the fea very moderate, though the
wind blew very frelh. We were the more induced to
take this precaution as we had received intelligence at the
Cape of Good Hope of a difcovery of land hereabouts, by
the French captains M. de Kerguelen and M. de St. Al-
louarn, in January 1772.
As the journal of that voyage has been fupprefied in
France, I lhall here infert fuch particulars as were communicated
to us by feveral French officers at the Cape of
Good Hope. M. de Kerguelen, a lieutenant in the French
navy, commanding the vefiel (flute) la Fortune, and having
with him a fmaller vellel (gabarre) le Gros Ventre, commanded
manded by M. de St. Allouarn, failed from the Ifle of
France or Mauritius, the latter end of 17 71. On the 1 3th
of January 1772, he faw two ifles, which he called the
Ifles of Fortune; and the next morning one more, which
from its lhape they called Ifle Ronde.. Almoft about the
fame time, M. de Kerguelen faw land, of a confiderable
extent and height, upon which he fent one of the officers
of his fhip a-head in the cutter to found. But the wind
blowing frelh, M. de St. Allouarn in the Gros Ventre Ihot
ahead of the boat, and finding a bay, which he called the
Gros Ventre’s bay, fent his own yawl to take pofleffion of
the land which was performed with the utmoft difficulty.
Both the boats then returned aboard the Gros Ventre, and
the cutter was cut adrift on account of the bad weather.
M. de St. Allouarn then fpent three days in quell of M. de
Kerguelen, who had been driven fixty leagues to leeward,
on account of his weak malls, and was returned towards
the Ifle of France. M. de St. Allouarn continued to take
the bearings of this land, and doubled its northern exs-
tremity beyond which it tended to the fouth-eaftward. In
this direction he coafted it for the fpace of twenty leagues,
and feeing it was-very high, inacceffible, and deftitute of
trees, he left it, Handing over to the coaft of New Holland,
from thence to Timor and Batavia, and at laft back to the
Ifle of France, where he died foon after his arrival. On
M. de Kerguelen’s return to Europe, he was immediately
feii.fi