30 THE ANTARCTIC. 



one of his descendants to raise a claim to the territory of 

 his ancestor in the southern lands from whence he came, 

 and in this way fresh interest was roused in the nearly 

 forgotten voyage of De Gonneville. It was not known 

 that that southern territory was merely a part of Brazil ; 

 on the contrary, it was sought in the unexplored waters 

 of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In the firm 

 conviction that fertile and populous countries would here 

 be discovered, the company fifty years later determined 

 to send out an exploring expedition consisting of two 

 ships. 



These were placed under the command of Lozier 

 Bouvet who led the ship L" Aigle, while the Marie was 

 commanded by Captain Hay. They left the harbour of 

 L'Orient on 17th July, 1738, sought out St. Catharina 

 in Brazil, and then steered to the south-east like the 

 Portuguese squadron on the occasion of Vespucci's third 

 voyage. As Bouvet on meridian 1 7° 40' W. approached 

 latitude 44° S. he was very eager to find the land indi- 

 cated on the maps as Terre de vue or Cape des terres 

 australes ; but nothing presented itself. Later, he came 

 to the conclusion that it must be either a small island 

 which had remained concealed from him by mists, and 

 which had been regarded as extended land by older 

 navigators, or — what was doubtless correct — icebergs. 

 With these he became better acquainted on the 15th of 

 December in the latitude corresponding to that of Paris 

 in the northern hemisphere, viz., 49° S., in the shape of 

 three great ice-islands, of which the largest, according to 

 his reckoning, had a circumference of upwards of seven 

 to ten miles, and a height of upwards of 1 200 feet, 

 estimates which betray his inexperience in ice-navigation. 

 The immense extent of these gigantic masses of ice at 

 first misled Bouvet joyfully to anticipate the neighbour- 

 hood of land. The dogma of the glorious lands of the 

 southern seas was so firmly rooted in the imagination of 



