78 Frcminville s Voyage to the North Pole. 



well knowing how to value a distinction of this honourable 

 kind, I can with truth affirm, that our scientific operations, 

 during the voyage, are entitled to a measure of public confi- 

 dence. On our return, our papers were submitted to the in- 

 spection of the illustrious Bougainville ; and this prince of 

 French navigators was pleased to sanction them with his ap- 

 probation. 



The division, or squadron, consisting of the frigates the 

 Syrene, the Gueriere, and the Revanche, put to sea on the 

 28th of March, 1806. After frequent calms for a number of 

 days together, in the gulph of Gascony, a very violent gale 

 dispersed them, and obliged the Syrene to make for the Azore 

 Islands, which had been fixed upon as the first point of ren- 

 dezvous in case of separation. 



After cruising two days within view of the isles of Corvo 

 and Flores, the squadron again got together, and immediately 

 bore away in a northerly direction. 



We were not long before we felt the effects of a piercing 

 cold, which gave us reason to regret the mild temperature of 

 the Azores. Continual foul weather, which did not allow us 

 for fifteen days to sail, except with lowered topsails, led the 

 captain to conceive, that as the rigorous season was likely to 

 be of longer continuance than usual, it was too soon to at- 

 tempt a passage into the frigid zone ; in consequence of this, 

 he determined to cruise about ten or twelve days in the lati- 

 tude of Cape Farewell, on the coast of Greenland. 



Our course, in coming- from the Azores to these latitudes, 

 had passed over the points wherein a number of doubtful spots 

 are marked on the great chart of the Atlantic Ocean, pub- 

 lished in 1786; and which, perhaps, have no existence, or only 

 form the little island of Jaquet, inaccurately fixed by the 

 voyagers to Newfoundland ; their reports, it is certain, have 

 often obtained more credit than they were entitled to. 



We steered for ten days on the parallel of 59 deg. 30 min. 

 but having to encounter very rough gales of a northerly wind, 

 all our endeavours to keep longer in that bearing were fruit- 

 less. Being obliged to keep close to the Cape, we were driven 

 back to the south, as far as the 58th parallel. To make some 

 advantage of a circumstance so contrary, we beat about for 

 the Isle of Bas, or Wrisland, placed in the chart of M. de 

 Verdun in 58 deg. 11 min. lat. N. and in 28 deg. 13 min. Ion. 

 W. This islet, which was nothing but an extinguished vol- 

 cano, had become a rendezvous for the Greenland fishermen 

 who first discovered it; the Dutch had formed some establish- 

 ments on it, for the preparation of whale-oil, but it disap- 

 peared about sixty years ago, and has never since been 



