177^. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 1 65 



from its sterility, I should, with great propriety, call 

 the Island of Desolation, but that I would not rob 

 Monsieur de Kerguelen of the honour of its bearing 

 his name. * 



Mr. Anderson, my surgeon, who, as I have already 

 mentioned, had made natural history a part of his 

 studies, lost no opportunity, during the short time 

 we lay in Christmas Harbour, of searching the coun- 

 try in every direction. He afterwards communi- 

 cated to me the observations he made on its natural 

 productions; and I shall insert them here in his own 

 words. 



" Perhaps no place, hitherto discovered in either 



connois environs quatre-vingt lieues des cotes ; et j'ai lieu de 

 croire, qu'elle a environ deux cents lieues de circuit." Ker- 

 guelen, ibid. 



* Some of Monsieur de Kerguelen's own countrymen seem 

 more desirous than we are, to rob him of this honour. It is very 

 remarkable that Monsieur de Pages never once mentions the name 

 of his commander. And, though he takes occasion to enumerate 

 the several French explorers of the southern hemisphere, from 

 Gonneville down to Crozet, he affects to preserve an entire silence 

 about Kerguelen, whose first voyage, in which the discovery of 

 this considerable tract of land was made, is kept as much out of 

 sight, as if it never had taken place. Nay, not satisfied with re- 

 fusing to acknowledge the right of another, he almost assumes it 

 to himself. For, upon a Map of the World annexed to his book, 

 at the spot where the new land is delineated, we read this inscrip- 

 tion : Isles nouvelles Australes vuees par Monsieur de Pages, en 

 1774. He could scarcely have expressed himself in stronger 

 terms, if he had meant to convey an idea that he was the conduc- 

 tor of the discovery. And yet we know, that he was only a lieu- 

 tenant [enseigne de vaisseau] on board one of the three ships 

 commanded by Kerguelen ; and that the discovery had been 

 already made in a former voyage, undertaken while he was ac- 

 tually engaged in his singular journey round the world. 



After all, it cannot but be remarked that Kerguelen was pecu- 

 liarly unfortunate, in having done so little to complete what he 

 had begun. He discovered a new land indeed ; but, in two expe- 

 ditions to it, he could not once bring his ships to an anchor upon 

 any part of its coasts. Captain Cook, as we have seen in this, and 

 in the foregoing chapter, had either fewer difficulties to struggle 

 with, or was more successful in surmounting them. 



M 3 



