294 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



Land as Balch^ and Nordenskjold^ so stoutly maintain. It may indeed have been the 

 archipelago which now bears Palmer's name, and in Powell we would appear to have an 

 excellent authority for retaining this name, The Palmer Archipelago, in the present 

 Admiralty charts. The whole truth of this matter is very difficult to ascertain, for 

 Powell's chart offers httle in support of his remarks. Of his "Palmer's Land", which 

 he apparently plotted from the scraps of information he could gather, the most westerly 

 part in 62° W might be taken as representing Brabant or Liege Islands and the rest ex- 

 tending eastwards to 57° 30' W, although far to the south of any known coast, might 

 with difficulty be regarded as the north coast of the present Trinity Peninsula, which 

 at two separate points, in 60° W and 57° 30' W, had already been discovered and much 

 more accurately charted by Bransfield in January and February 1820.^ Palmer may 

 possibly have discovered part of the Trinity Peninsula on his second voyage in the 

 ' James Monroe ' in November 1821 , but since this voyage has been hopelessly confused 

 with the part he played in the discovery of the South Orkneys, it is more appropriately 

 discussed in the section which now follows (see p. 302). For the moment, where other 

 evidence on Palmer's achievement is either lacking entirely or deplorably vague, the 

 opinion of Powell should not be disregarded, for it is the opinion of one who was per- 

 sonally acquainted with Palmer and was his partner in a voyage of exploration. 



NINETEENTH-CENTURY EXPLORATION 



GEORGE POWELL AND NATHANIEL BROWN PALMER 



On November 30, 1821, Powell in the 'Dove' arrived at Elephant Island where he 

 found the American sloop 'James Monroe', commanded by Nathaniel Brown Palmer 

 of the Stonington sealing fleet. Sealing had been bad, and accordingly at Powell's 

 suggestion the two commanders arranged to sail eastwards in search of new land and 

 fresh hunting grounds. 



Powell's wisdom in inviting Palmer to accompany him is obvious, as it would have 

 been imprudent to venture a single vessel unsupported into an unknown sea sure to be 

 fog-ridden and beset with ice, and the readiness with which the American vessel was 

 prepared to assist the British is a strong indication that good relations existed between 

 the two nations while carrying on their trade in the face of common hardship and danger. 

 McNab^ also records how the English and American bay whalers used to work amicably 

 together and were often of mutual assistance. 



The two vessels, having searched Clarence Island in their boats without finding a 

 single fur or elephant seal, left Cape Bowles on the night of December 3 and proceeded 

 to the eastward. Thick fog compelled them to heave to on the night of the 4th and 



1 Balch, E. S., 1925, The First Sighting of West Antarctica, Geog. Rev., xv, pp. 651-2. 

 - Nordenskjold, O., 1911, Die Schwedische Siidpolar-Expedition undihre Geographische Tdtigkeit, i, Lief, i, 

 pp. 40-1 (Stockholm). 



* See Gould, R. T., 1925, loc. cit., supra, pp. 220-5. 



* McNab, R., 1913, The Old Whaling Days. A History of Southern New Zealand from 1830 to 1840, 

 pp. 197-8 (Melbourne and London). 



