THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
55 
me the following account of it, viz. “ That the Pilot of the 177 6. 
“ Bo alible, who was in the voyage with Monlieur de Ker- [ Dec ^ m ber ‘ 
u guelen, had given him the latitude and longitude of a 
“ little iiland, which Monlieur de Kerguelen called the 
u Ille of Rendezvous, and which lies not far from the 
u great iiland which he faw. Latitude of the little ille, by 
u feven obfervations, 48° 26' South; longitude, by feven ob- 
“ fervations of the diltance of the Sun and Moon, 64° 57' 
“ Eaft from Paris.” I was very forry I had not looner known 
that there was on board the frigate at TenerifFe, an officer 
who had been with Monlieur de Kerguelen, efpecially the 
Pilot; becaufe from him I might have obtained more in- 
terelting information about this land than the lituation 
alone, of which I was not before entirely ignorant *. 
My 
* Captain Cook’s proceedings, as related in the remaining part of this Chapter, 
and in the next, being upon a coaft newly difcovered by the French, it could not but 
be an object of his attention to trace the footfteps of the original explorers. But no 
fuperiority of profeffional fkill, nor diligence in exerting it, could poffibly qualify him 
to do this fuccefsfully, without pofleffing, at the fame time, full and authentic intelli¬ 
gence of all that had been performed here by his predeceffors in the difcovery. But that 
he was not fo fortunate as to be thus fufficiently inftructed, will appear from the following 
fa< 5 ts, which the Reader is requeued to attend to, before he proceeds to the perufal of 
this part of the Journal. 
How very little was known, with any precifion, about the operations of Kerguelen, 
when Captain Cook failed in 17765 may be inferred from the following paragraph of his 
Inftructions: « You are to proceed in fearch of fome iilands [aid to have been lately feen 
“ by the French in the latitude of 48° South, and in the meridian of Mauritius (a)” 
This was, barely, the amount of the very indefinite and imperfect information, which 
Captain Cook himfelf had received from Baron Plettenberg at the Cape of Good Hope, 
in November 1772 (h) ; in tire beginning of which year Kerguelen’s firjl voyage had 
taken place. 
The Captain, on his return homeward, in March 1775, heard, a fecond time, fome- 
thing about this French difcovery at the Cape, where he met with Monfieur Crozet, 
[a) See the Inftruftions in the Introdudtion. 
{b) See Captain Cook’s Voyage, Vol. i. p. 16, 
who 
