394 
HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
“ He continued his unremitted labours on various branches of astronomy, to the 
great illustration of that science, and the honour of his country, till the year 1750, 
when he proceeded to pursue his researches in the other hemisphere. 
" On the 21st of November, 1750, he embarked at L’Orient, on board the 
Glorieux, commanded by M. d’Apres, and in three weeks arrived at the Cape de 
Verd Islands: on the 25th of January, 1751, they put into Rio de Janeiro, on the 
coast of Brazil, where they remained, from some repairs necessary to a small vessel 
which attended them, upwards of a month. M. de la Caille, however, was not idle 
during his abode there, but made several important observations respecting the lon¬ 
gitude, &c. On the 25th of February they set sail from thence, and on the 30th of 
March arrived in sight of the Cape of Good Hope, but did not enter the road till 
the 19th of April. 
<c The astronomer was received at the Cape with all the honour due to his supe¬ 
rior science and character. He began his observations on the 10th of May, 1751, 
with the parallax of the Moon, and continued them to the 25th of February, 1752. 
He observed Venus from the 25th of October to the 25th of the following Novem¬ 
ber; and the planet Mars from the 31st of August to the 9th of October. He 
renewed his operations on the parallax of the'Moon in the month of March, and 
continued them till October. In the interval of his observations he gave his atten¬ 
tion to geography and objects of natural philosophy. He sent the details of his first 
operations to the Academy before his return. 
“ Ptolemy, who lived in Egypt, gave a catalogue of the southern stars; but that 
catalogue was incomplete. 
“ The Portuguese navigators had traced the plan of several constellations, but in 
such a coarse way that astronomy did not derive any advantage from them. 
“ In 1677, M. Halley went to the Island of St. Helena, to form a celestial chart 
of the southern hemisphere, and he observed but three hundred and fifty stars. 
“ At the commencement of the present century, the Baron Krosick had charged 
Peter Kolbe, a Prussian, with the same commission as that of M. de la Caille; but 
he did not answer the expectations of the German nobleman who employed him. 
Thus the descriptions of the southern hemisphere, when M. de la Caille arrived at 
the Cape, were nothing more than rough outlines. 
“ He began to observe the southern stars the 6th of August, 1751, and continued 
that labour till the same month in the following year. He beheld, in all their lustre, 
