344 
The Aurora Australis shows itself sud- 
enly on the southern horizon, in the 
form of a moyeable white column. In 
its rapid shiftings it displays the finest co- 
lours of the rainbow ; it illuminates all the 
horizon, and suddenly vanishes, only to re- 
appear under a thousand other forms, which 
keep up the same play of colours. This 
fine spectacle amused us every night, from 
the 2d till the 7th March; when the sky 
was darkened with clouds, and the wind 
gradually rose into a tempest, so furious 
that the oldest sailors in the expedition had 
never seen any thing similar to it. The 
vessels laboured, and bent under the raging 
waves’ in the most frightful manner, and 
shipped much sea at their sides. The sails 
were torn in pieces, and, toadd to our mis- 
fortunes, we found ourselves within two 
fathoms of an immense ffhountain of ‘ice, 
against which we would inevitably have 
been dashed to pieces, had not a large wave 
thrown us back, and thus saved us from in- 
stant destruction. Our situation was the 
more distressing, that we could look for no 
human aid in these desolate seas. . 
The rapid approach of winter now an- 
nounced to us that. we must not think of 
advancing further to the south. We, there- 
fore, availed ourselves, on the 19th, of a 
favourable wind, which carried us at the 
rate of ten or twelve miles an hour; and, 
directing our course to New Holland, we 
came in sight of Van Diemen’s Land on 
the 24th; and, on the 30th March, we 
anchored in Port Jackson, opposite the 
town of Sydney. After a fatiguing and pe- 
rilous navigation of 130 days, Port Jackson 
seemed to us a Paradise. The Mirni ar- 
rived there seven days after us. 
The learned traveller, in giving a> 
sketch of Port Jackson and its vicinity, 
takes occasion to pay a complimentary 
tribute to the governing authorities of 
that prosperous colony... From New 
Holland, the expedition proceeded to 
New Zealand,—the account of which 
very nearly corresponds with that of 
our -brave countryman, Captain Cook. 
Proceeding in their voyage among these 
islands, the learned author observes :— 
We next entered the archipelago of the 
Dangerous Islands, near which we disco- 
vered another group ‘of islands, quite un- 
known, to which Captain Bellinghausen 
gave the name ‘of the Archipelago of Alex- 
ander I, The inhabitants of these islands 
are entirely savages, and the most ferocious 
that we have yet encountered: ‘they abso- 
lutely wished fo have no communication 
with us ; they set fire to their forests, in 
order to terrify us, and prevent us’ from 
landing. The captain endeavoured to allure 
them to the ships, by expressing, ‘in ‘signs 
and gestures, our friendly dispositions, and 
and by exhibiting to them and offering them 
several presents ; but all these inducements 
were in vain. We at last tried to frighten 
‘Novelties of Foreign Literature. 
[Nov. I, 
them, ' by firing muskets in the air. They 
seemed to believe that we wished to exter- 
minate them by fire: they exhibited water, 
and scattered. it in showers, as if to shew 
that they could extinguish our. fire. The 
captain did not wish to use. force, and re- 
turned on board. his ship. 
From the Archipelago of Alexander I., 
we sailed for Otaheite, where we regulated 
our chronometers,, in order that. we might 
reduce the longitudes of several islands 
that we had discoyered.in our last course. 
Arriving at. Macquarrie, Island on the 
17th November, we found a number of 
English whale ships. . Here we felt, for the 
first time, an earthquake at sea, the shocks 
of which were very strong. The whalers, 
who were on the island, felt.it also three 
different times. Earthquakes, we under- 
stood, take place there every month.” 
We continued our course to» the south- 
east, sailing between large masses of ice ; 
but, notwithstanding all our efforts, we 
never could pass the 70th degree of south 
latitude, and this only in one place. _ In all 
others, we could only advance to 693°, and 
the ice was there 300 fathoms thick. 
The second polar voyage was much more 
perilous than the first’; and it was only to 
Divine Providence, and the vigilance of our 
captain, that we owe our safety. © On the 
25th December 1820, when we were assem- 
bled for divine service to return thanks to 
the Almighty, on the anniversary of the 
victory which we had gained before Paris, 
we struck with great violence against a 
huge mass of ice ; but fortunately the shock 
was oblique: the ice only grazed the part 
of the vessel where the anchors were sus- 
pended, (and which was for this purpose 
provided with a‘double parapet), which 
was carried off by the violence of the shock ; 
but the ship suffered no injury, and shewed 
no mark of leakage. 
After having encountered so many dan- 
gers, we had at last the satisfaction of 
making several new discoveries. On the 
11th January 1821, we discovered in 69° 
30’ of south latitude, an island, which'we 
called Peter I.; and on the 17th of the 
same month, we fell in with a coast in the 
same latitude, which we named Alexan- 
der I. These lands are encircled with 
ice, which prevented» us from approaching 
them, and examining them more narrowly. 
The dfscovery of these islands is the more 
remarkable, as they are the most southerly 
of all the lands that have been discovered 
in that hemisphere. 
We next directed our course’ to New 
Shetland, which consists of several islands. 
We surveyed ‘the southern coast of it, and 
discovered six other-islands. ©They. are, 
haweyver, all uninhabited,: barren; “and co- 
vered with snow» and=-perpetual ice : they 
reaonly the abode of pengums andwhales. 
From hence we set sail to New Georgia, 
and terminated our navigation of the Icy 
Sea to the south of the same island at 
which 
