THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



S7 



on the i6th, beinp: then in the latitude of 48° a-;', and in the '776. 



^ • A e 0% a r ■ \ \- j December. 



longitude or 52 Ealt, we law pengums and divers, and / 



rock-weed floating in the fea. We continued to meet with °" ^^ ' • 



more or lefs of thefe every day, as we proceeded to the Eaft- 



ward; and on the 21ft, in the latitude of 48° 27' South, and Saturday zr. 



in the longitude of 65° Eaft, a very large feal was feen. 



We had now much foggy weather, and, as we espedled to 



fall in with the land every hour, our navigation became 



both tedious and dangerous. 



At length, on the 24th, at fix o'clock in the morning, as Tuefday24, 

 we were fleering to the Eaftward, the fog clearing away a 

 little, we fav/ land *, bearing South South Eafl, which, 



upon 



fuch as mark the operations of the firfl: French yoyage ; and even for thefe, he was 

 indebted to a MS. drawing. 



But this veil of unnecefTary fecrecy is at length drawn afide. Kerguelen himfelf 

 has, very lately, publifhed the Journal of his proceedings in two fucceffive voyages, 

 in the years 1772 and 1773 ; and has annexed to his Narrative a Chart of the coafts 

 cf this land, as far as he had explored them in both voyages. Monfieur de Pages, 

 filfo, much about the fame time, favoured us with another account of the fecond 

 voyage, in fomc refpedls fuller than Kerguelen's own, on board whofe fhip he was 

 then an officer. 



From thefe fources of authentic information, we are enabled to draw every ne- 

 cefTar.y material to correct what is erroneous, and to illuflrate what, otherwife, would 

 have remained obfcure, in this part of Captain Cook's Journal. We fhall take occa- 

 lion to do this in feparate Notes on the paffages as they occur, and conclude this 

 tedious, but, it is hoped, not unneceflary, detail of fads, with one general remark, 

 fully expreffive of the difadvantages our Author laboured under. He never faw that 

 part of the coafl upon which the French had been in 1772 ; and he never knev/ that 

 they had been upon another part of it in 1773, which was the very fcene of his own 

 operations. Ccnfequently, what he knew of the forma- voyage, as delineated upon 

 Crozet's Chart, only ferved to perplex and miflead his judgment; and his total igno- 

 rance of the latter, put it out of his power to compare his own obfervations with thofe 

 then made by Kerguelen ; though we, who are better inftrufted, can do this, by tra- 

 cing the plaineft marks of coincidence and agreement. 



* Captain Cook was not the original difcovcrer of thefe fmall iflnnds which he 

 now fell in with. It is certain that they had been {ten and named by Kerguelen, on 

 his fecond voyage, in December 1773. Their pofition, relatively to each other, and 



Vol. I. ' I t« 



