THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 



59^ 



this is the fame that Monfieur de Kerguelen called the Ifle '776- 

 of Rendezvous *; but I know nothing that can rendezvous 

 at it, but fowls of the air ; for it is certainly inaccefTible to 

 every other animal. 



At eleven o'clock the weather began to clear up, and we 

 immediately tacked, and fleered in for the land. At noon, we 

 had a pretty good obfei-vation, which enabled us to deter- 

 mine the latitude of Bligh's Cap, which is the northernmofl 

 ifland, to be 48° 29' South, and its longitude 68° 40' Eaft f . 

 We paffed it at three o'clock, Handing to the South South 

 Eaft, with afrefli gale at Weft. 



Soon after we faw the land, of which we had a faint view 

 in the morning; and at four o'clock it extended from South 

 Eaft 4- Eaft, to South Weft by South, diHant about four miles. 

 The left extreme, which I judged to be the Northern point 

 of tliis land called, in the French Chart of the Southern 



* This ifle, or rack, was the Tingle point about which Captain Cook had received 

 the leaft information at TenerifFe ; and we may obferve how (agacious he was in tra- 

 cing it. What he could only fpeak of as prohahle, a comparifon of his Ciiart with 

 that lately publifiied by Kerguelen, proves to be certain ; and if he had even read and 

 copied what his predecefl'or in the difcovery fays of it, he could fcarcely have varied his 

 account of its (hape. Kerguelen's words are, " Ijle de Reunion, qui n'til qu'une 

 ' Roche, nous fervoit de Rendezvous, ou de point de ralliement ; & reflemble a un 



< 



<( 



de 



coin ae mire. 



f The French and Englifii agree very nearly (as might be expe£teJ) in their ac- 

 counts of the latitude of this ifland ; but the obfervations by which they fix its longi- 

 tude, vary confiderably. 



The Pilot at TenerifFe made it only 64^ 57' Eaft from Paris, which is about 67" 

 16' Eaft from London; or 1° 24' more Wefterly than Captain Cook's obfervations 

 fix it. 



Monfieur de Pages fays it is 66° 47' Eaft from Paris, that is 69° 6' Eaft from Lon- 

 don, or twenty-llx miles more Eafterly than it is placed by Cr.ptain Cook. 



Kerguelen hlmfelf only fays that it is about 68° of Eaft longitude, par eS"" de longi- 

 tude. 



I 2 Hemifphere, 



