108 NOTES ON CHARTS OP THE COAST OP TASMANIA. 



Mascarin, with Mous. Crozet, wlio also was Capitaine de 

 brulot, as his second, on board, and gave the command of the 

 Marquis de Castries to the Chevalier du Clesmeur, who was 

 second in command of the expedition, and succeeded to the 

 entire command on the death of Marion. 



An account of the expedition, under the title " New Voyage 

 to the South Sea," was published in Paris in 1783, being 

 compiled from the plans and journals of Crozet. Crozet 

 ignores as much as possible Captain du Clesmeur, who 

 evidently knew it, and also of the proposed publication of 

 the journal. For the editor of the journal prefixes to it a 

 *' preliminary discourse," the reading of which, he says, " is 

 indispensable to rectify some important points in the narra- 

 tive of the voyage ; " and in which he declares that it was 

 only on the eve of publication that he learnt that du 

 Clesmeur succeeded to the command on the death of Marion. 

 For in the journal Crozet never once mentions du Clesmeur's 

 name, from the time of Marion's massacre until the moment 

 when the vessels are parting company at Manilla, but always — 

 even in relation to matters on board the Castries — says, " I 

 did this," " I ordered that," as if he were in supreme com- 

 mand. The editor of the journal therefore requests the 

 reader to note that everything done after Marion's death 

 was done under the command of du Clesmeur and not of 

 Crozet. 



It is necessary to note this jealousy, as it explains some of 

 the events that came to pass, and some of the results of the 

 expedition. Its main object was to seek the great south 

 land. Marion left the Mauritius in October 1771, and after 

 some detention at Bourbon, Madagascar, and the Cape of 

 Good Hope, left this last on the 28th December in that year. 

 On the 19th January, 1772, he discovered, after having 

 looked for Losier-Bouvet's Cap de la Circoncision in the wrong 

 place, — the islands now called Prince Edward's or Marion's, 

 but which he himself named Terre d' Esperance. While 

 examining the islands, the Mascarin, by disregarding the then 

 acknowledged " rules of the road," ran foul of the Castries, 

 which was lying to, and carried away her bowsprit and fore- 

 mast. Crozet, who mentions the accident, carefully avoids 

 details as to cause. Jury masts were rigged up, and it seems 

 that the Castries after the accident was still a better sailor 

 than her consort, and du Clesmeur told Marion he was ready 

 to go wherever he wished. But Crozet says that the condition 

 of the Castries prevented Marion from carrying out his 

 intention of going southward. Sailing eastward, the islands 

 now called, the Crozets were discovered on the 22nd January, — 

 they were first sighted from du Clesmeur's ship, — but like 

 other injustices in nomenclature, record the name of a man 

 to whom none of the credit of their discovery is due. 



