HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. 



35 



great importance that a new expedition was determined 

 on, with more detailed official orders to explore the 

 continent. Kerguelen, in command of three vessels, 

 in 1773 sought the land discovered a year previously, 

 without, however, even ascertaining the extent of 

 Kerguelen Island, as it is now called. Cook had sailed 

 round on the south without ever coming in sight of land 

 in February of the same year ; indeed he missed also the 



Captain James Cook. 



Marion and Crozet Isles, of whose discovery he had 

 heard in Cape Town. 



James Cook was no novice in these waters. He 

 was chosen commander of an expedition for the observa- 

 tion of a transit of Venus on the 3rd of July, 1769, after 

 having greatly distinguished himself by his hydrographic 

 charts of the St. Lawrence in Canada, and the coasts of 



