1776. Thefe two iilands-, as alfo four others which lie from nine December. v
v— —1 to twelve degrees of longitude more to the Eaft, and nearly
in the fame latitude, were difcovered, as I have mentioned in
my late Voyage *, by Captains Marion du Frefne, and Crozet,
French Navigators, in January 1772, on their paflage in two
ihips from the Cape of Good Hope to the Philippine Iilands.
As they have no names in the French chart of the Southern
hemifphere, which Captain Crozet communicated to me in
1775 t> 1 fljall diftinguiih the two we now faw, by calling
them Prince Edward’s Iilands, after his Majefty’s fourth
ion ; and the other four, by the name of Marion’s and
Croz.et’s Iilands, to commemorate their difcoverers.
We had now, for the moft part, ftrong gales between
the North and Weft, and but very indifferent weather; noc
better, indeed, than we generally have in England in the
very depth of Winter, though it was now the middle of
Summer in this hemifphere. Not difcoUraged, however,
by this, after leaving Prince Edward’s Iilands, I ihaped our
courfe to pafs to the Southward of the others, that I might
get into the latitude of the land difcovered by Monfieur de
Kerguelen.
I had applied to the Chevalier de Borda, whom, as I have
mentioned, I found at'TenerifPe, requefting, that if he knew
any thing of the iiland difcovered by Monfieur de Kerguelen,
between the Cape of Good Hope and New Holland, he
* Captain Cook’s Voyage, VoJ. ii. p: 266. Thefe iilands are there faid to be in the
latitude of 48° South ; t|iat is,, two degrees farther South, than what here appears to
be their real pofitioir.
- t See Goofc's:Voyage, as above. Dr. Forfter, in t i ^nbfenations made during S a t'
voyage, p.. 30',; gives .us this-dfcfaypUpn.of the Chart' then communicated by Monfieur
Crozet: that it was publijhed under the patronage o f the Duke de Croye, by Robert de
Vaugondy. Captain Cook tells us lower in this Chapter, that it whs publilhed in
‘ J73-. 5
would
would be fo obliging as to communicate it to me. Accord- _ *776-
• 1 • n 1 r D c December. ingly, jult before we failed from Santa Cruz bay, he fent - —-
me the following account of it, viz. | That the Pilot of the
“ Bouffole, who was in the voyage with Monfieur de Ker-
I guelen, had given him the latitude and longitude of a
“ little ifland, which Monfieur de Kerguelen called the
“ Ifle of Rendezvous, and which lies not far from the
“ great ifland which he faw. Latitude of the little ifle, by
| feven obfervations, 48° 26' South ; longitude, by feven ob-
| fervations of the diftance of the Sun and Moon, 64° 57'
“ Eaft from Paris.” I was very forry 1 had not foqner known'
that there was on board the frigate at Teneriffe, an officer
who had been with Monfieur de Kerguelen, efpecially the
Pilot; becaufe from him I might have obtained more in-
terefting information about this land than the fituation
alone, of which I was not before entirely ignorant *.
My '
* Captain Cook’s proceedings, as related in the remaining part o f this Chapter,. -
and in the next, being upon a. coaft newly difcovered by the French, it could not but
be an objeift of his attention to trace the footfteps of the original explorers. But no
fupenority o f profeilional ikill, nor diligence in exerting it, could poiiibly qualify him
to do this fuccefsfully,. without poffeffing, at the feme time, full and authentic intelligence
o f all that had,been performed here by his predeceflors in the difcovery. But '
that he was not fo fortunate as to be thus fufficiently inftru&ed, will appear from the
following facts, which the Reader is requefted to attend to, before he proceeds to the
perufal of this part o f the Journal.
How very little was known, with any precifion, about the operations of Kerguelen,
when Captain Cook failed in 1776, may be inferred from the following paragraph of
his Inftruitions : “ You are to proceed in feardh of fome iilands fa id to have been lately
v fern by the French in the latitude of 48° South, and in the meridian of Mpuri-
“ tius {a).” This was, barely, the amount of the very indefinite and impcrfeit information,
which Captain Cook himfelf had received from Baron Plettenberg at the:
Cape' of Good Hope, in November 1772 (¿) 3 in the beginning o f which year Kerguelen’s
firjt voyage had taken place.
00 See the Inftruitions in the Introduction..
(¿) See Captain Cook’ s Voyage, V o l. i. p. 1 6 .
The