6 



f»ORTER's JOURNAL. 



British navy, saw them on the 30th March, in the year 

 1792, examined their coasts, projected a chart of them, 

 and described them more minutely than any other navi- 

 gator. Captain Marchand and heutenant Hergest, pro- 

 bably ignorant that they had been previously seen and 

 named by captains Ingraham and Roberts, gave to each 

 island particular names. Those seen by the French cap- 

 tain, received from him the names of Isle Marchand, Isle 

 Baux, Les Deux Freres, Isle Masse, Isle Chanal, in honour 

 of his owners, himself and officers. The group was called 

 by him the Revolution Islands, in honour of the French 

 revolution. Lieutenant Hergest named them. Sir Henry 

 Martin's Island, Rion's Island, Trevanien's Island, Her- 

 gest's rocks, and (what might induce the belief of his 

 having had a knowledge of a previous discovery) he has 

 permitted two of them to retain the name of Roberts' 

 Islands. Lieutenant Hergest was killed at the Sandwich 

 Islands, on his way to join Vancouver, to whom he was 

 .sent with supplies in the ship Daedalus. Vancouver, in 

 honour of his unfortunate friend, named the group Her- 

 gest's Islands. It is possible, as I before observed, that 

 neither of the above navigators had a knowledge, at the 

 time of falling in with the aforesaid islands, that they had 

 been discovered and named some months before by Ame- 

 ricans. Yet captain Marchand obtained this knowledge 

 at Canton, and, notwithstanding, still assumes the right of 

 naming them. Lieutenant Hergest did not discover them 

 until near two years after they had been seen by the 

 American captains. His ignorance of the discovery seems 

 less probable, and as no mention is made in the account 

 of Vancouver's voyage, (the work which contains lieute- 

 nant Hergest's remarks) of the discovery made by the 

 Americans, and as the history of that voyage was not made 

 public until after the publication of the discovery made by 

 Ingraham, we can hardly bring ourselves to believe that 

 the British (ever anxious to arrogate to themselves the 

 merit of making new discoveries) were willing to allow 

 our countrymen the barren honour of accidentally falling 

 in with a group of islands, which before the month of 

 May, 1791, were unknown to the world. Even Mr. 

 Fleurien, the learned editor of Marchand's voyage, which 

 was evidently written to rival that of Vancouver, has 



