A. D. 1775. 579 



cers, moft of whom were aftronomers and geographers as well as navi- 

 gators, and alio by Meflleurs Wales and Bailey as profefled aftronomers, 

 Meflieurs Forfter fenior and junior as naturalifts, and Mr. Hodges as 

 landfcape-painter. The objedt of this voyage was to deteruiine the long 

 contefted queftion, whether the unexplored part of the fouthern hemi- 

 fphere were only a vaft expanfe of water, or contained another conti- 

 nent, as fpeculative geographers had long fuppofed, from a prefumed 

 neceflity of a balance of land in the northern and fouthern hemi- 

 fpheres. 



Befides difcovering and exploring many iflands in the fouthern 

 temperate zone, he made a complete circuit of the Southern ocean in 

 two fuccefllve fummers in thofe latitudes wherein the maps ufed to ex- 

 hibit their Terra aujiralis, or great fouthern continent : and three times 

 he went within the Antardtic circle (once as far as the latitude of 71" 

 10') which no navigator ever entered before, and, we may venture to 

 fay, no one will ever enter again. Having thusafcertained, to the fatif- 

 fadion of all mankind, that no land of any great extent can pollibly 

 exift in the fouthern polar regions, unlefs fo near the pole as to be 

 utterly ufelefs and inaccelTible, and alfo that the fouthern polar regions 

 are much colder, and the feas in them more incumbered with ice, and 

 that they are confequently lefs fit for the purpofes of cultivation or na- 

 vigation, than thofe of the correfponding northern latitudes, he arrived 

 in England in July 1775. 



Wliile Captain Cook was employed in exploring the fouthern polar 

 regions, Mr. de Kerguelen, a French navigator, was alfo engaged in a 

 fimilar purfuit. In the beginning of the year 1772 he had foimd land, 

 fituatcd in 49" fouth latitude, and 69° eaft longitude from Greenwich, 

 whence he returned, rather precipitately, to France, where he was re- 

 ceived as a fecond Columbus, on the faith of having dilcovercd the cele- 

 brated Terra aiijlrnlh, the exiftence of wdiich was then almoft univerfally 

 believed. In the year 1773 he failed again with two (hips of war, carrying 

 64 and 32 guns and 700 men to complete his dilcovery, and to take, 

 polfeflion of the great Southern continent for the crown of France. 

 But alas ! the mountain of high expectation fcarcely brought forth a 

 moufe. The object of this unwieldy armament turned out to be an 

 ifland of no very great extent, and fo milcrably barren, that it produces 

 not a tree or flirub of any kind, and very little grafs. It has no human 

 inhabitants, and fcarcely any land animals : nor does the lea around it 

 appear to be more produdiive than the land. Kerguelen could not irj 

 either of his voyages even fuid anchorage tor his Ihips in any of the 

 numerous harbours of his land of promifc; and we are chiefly indebted 

 for our knowlege of its condition to Captain Cook, who vifited it in 

 his third voyage in December 1776, and who fays, that he fhonUl 



4l)2 



