j6 AVOYAGETO 



.7-6. 



•December. 



My inftmiflions dire(5ling me to examine it, with a view 

 to diicov^r a good harbour, I proceeded in the fearch ; and 



oil 



The Captain, on his return homeward. In March 1775, heard, a fecond time, 

 fomething about this French difcovery at the Cape, where he met with Monfieur Cro- 

 zet, who very obligingly com7nimicated to him a Chart of the Southern Hemifphere, 

 wherein were delineated not only his own difcoveries, hut alfo that of Captain Kerguelen {a). 

 But what little information that Chart could convey, was ftiil neceiTarily confined to 

 the operations of the firft voyage ; the Chart here referred to, having been publiflied 

 in France in 1773 ; that is, before any intelligence could poffibjy be conveyed from 

 the Southern Hemifphere of the refult of Kerguelen's fecond vifit to this now land^ 

 v/hich, we now know, happened towards the clofe of the fame year. 



Of thefe latter operations, the only account (if that can be called an account, wiiich 

 conveys no particular information) received by Captain Cook from Monfieur Crozet, 

 was, that a later Voyage had been undertaken by the French, under the command of Captain 

 Kerguelen, which had ended ?nuch to the difgrace of that commander (^). 



What Crozet had not communicated to our Author, and what we are fure, from a 

 variety of circurjiftances, he had never heard of from any other quarter, he milTed an 

 opportunity of learning at TenerifFe. He expreffes his being forry, as we have juft 

 read, that he did not knoiu fooncr that there was on board the frigate an officer who had 

 hrn with Kcrguekn, as he might have obtained from him more inter efling information about 

 this land, than its fituation. And, indeed, if he had converfed with that officer, he 

 might have obtained information more interefiing than he was aware of; he might have 

 learnt that Kerguelen had aflually vifited this Southern land a fecond time, and that 

 the little ifle of vifhich he then received the name and pofition from the Chevalier de 

 Eorda, was a difcovery of this later voyage. But the account conveyed to him being, 

 as the Reader will obferv'e, unaccompanied with any date, or other diflinguifliing cir- 

 cumflance, he left Teneriffe, and arrived on the coafts of Kerguelen's Land, under a 

 full perfuafion that it had been vifited only once before. And even, with regard to the 

 operations of that firfl voyage, he had nothing to guide him, but the very fcanty ma- 

 terials afforded to him by Baron Plettenberg and Monfieur Crozet. 



The truth is, the French feem, for fome reafon or other, not -furely founded on the 

 importance £)f Kerguelen's difcovery, to have been very fhy of publifhing a full and 

 diftindt account cf it. No fuch account had been publiflied while Captain Cook 

 lived. Nay, even after the return of hi-8 fhips in 1780, the Gentleman who obligingly 

 lent his afliftance to give a view of the prior obfervations of the French, and to con- 

 neiTl them on the fame Chart with thofe of our Author, though his aiiuluity in procu- 

 ring geographical information can be equalled only by his readinefs in communicating 

 it, had not, it fhould feem, been able to procure any materials for that purpofe, but 



(0) See Cook's Voyage, Vol. ii. p. i66^ (i) Ibid. p. 268. 



iiich 



