15-2 FRANCE AND AUSTRALIA, 



KERGUELEN'S VOYAGES: 



In the year 1772 two French expeditions visited Aus- 

 tralasia. The story of the voyage of Marion du Fresne 

 and Crozet from Mauritius to Tasmania and New Zealand 

 is well known, but a strange oblivion has fallen on the activi- 

 ties of Saint Allouarn on the western side of Australia. 

 The name of Saint Allouarn is preserved by an island near 

 Cape Leeuwin, and there are one or two casual references 

 to his voyage, but no one seems to have suspected that he 

 actually took formal possession of part of Australia for 

 France. Saint Allouarn was a companion of Ives Kergue- 

 len, who had set out from France to seek for the southern 

 continent. This was the vast continent supposed to exist 

 in the temperate regions of the southern hemisphere, the 

 continent whose existence Cook finally disproved, a work 

 which he considered of far more importance than the mere 

 charting of the east coast of "New Holland." Had Cook 

 had a better vessel he might never have visited Australia 

 at all. 



While Cook decided in 1770 that there was net much 

 to be found between New Zealand and the Cape of Good 

 Hope, though he had yet to prove that no southern continent 

 existed between New Zealand and Cape Horn, Kerguelen 

 was in 1772 still searching for a southern continent south-east 

 of the Cape of Good Hope. After a visit to Mauritius he 

 sailed to the Southward on January 16, 1772, in the Fortune, 

 accompanied by. Saint Allouarn in command of the Gros 

 Ventre, a 300 ton vessel carrying 14 guns and a crew of 105 

 men. On February 13, they reached Kerguelen Land, which 

 Kerguelen named La Nouvelle France, and took to be part 

 of the long-sought continent. Next day a storm separated 

 the two vessels. Kerguelen returned to Mauritius, but St. 

 Allouarn bore away for Australia. Of his voyage two 

 accounts are preserved in the Commonwealth Library. One 

 is the log of the Gros Ventre, the other the Diary of Rosily, 

 properly an officer of Kerguelen's vessel, who was on the 

 Gros Ventre by accident. He had been sent in the sloop to 

 sound on February 14, and managed to reach the Gros Ventre 

 when the storm broke. The log tells us the land near Cape 

 Leeuwin was sighted on March 17, 1772. Next day St. 

 Allouarn sent a boat to reconnoitre, but those in it were 

 unable to land. They caught many fish, but saw no signs 

 of inhabitaiits. The Gros Ventre then sailed northward 

 along the cc\st, missing the Swan River, discovered in 169-7 



