56 
I 77 6 - 
December. 
'- 
A VOYAGE TO 
My inftru6tions diredting me to examine it, with a view 
to difcover a good harbour, I proceeded in the fearch; and 
on 
who very obligingly communicated to him a Chart of the Southern Hemifphere, wherein were 
delineated not only his own discoveries , but alfo that of Captain Kerguelen (a). But what little 
information that Chart could convey, was ftill neceffarily confined to the operations of 
the firft voyage j the Chart here referred to, having been publifhed in France in 1773* 
that is, before any intelligence could poffibly be conveyed from the Southern Hemifphere 
of the refult of Kerguelen’s fecond vifit to this new land; which, we now know, hap¬ 
pened towards the clofe of the fame year. 
Of thefe latter operations, the only account (if that can be called an account, which 
conveys no particular information) received by Captain Cook from Monfieur Crozet, 
was, that a later Voyage had been undertaken by the French , under the command of Captain 
Kerguelen , which had ended much to the difgrace of that commander (b). 
What Crozet had not communicated to our Author, and what we are fure, from a 
variety of circumftances, he had never heard of from any other quarter, he miffed an 
opportunity of learning at Teneriffe. He exprefles his being forry, as we have juft 
read, that he did not know fooner that there was on board the frigate an officer who had been 
with Kerguelen , as he might have obtained from him more interefing information about this 
land , than its ftuation. And, indeed, if he had converfed with that officer, he might 
have obtained information more interefing than he was aware of; he might have learnt 
that Kerguelen had actually vifited this Southern land a fecond time, and that the little 
iile of which he then received the name and pofition from the Chevalier de Borda, was 
a difcovery of this later voyage. But the account conveyed to him being, as the Rea¬ 
der will obferve, unaccompanied with any date, or other diftinguifhing circumftance, he 
left Teneriffe, and arrived on the coafts of Kerguelen’s Land, under a full perfuafion that 
it had been vifited only once before. And even, with regard to the operations of that 
firft voyage, he had nothing to guide him, but the very fcanty materials afforded to him 
by Baron Plettenberg and Monfieur Crozet. 
The truth is, the French feem, for fome reafon or other, not furely founded on the 
importance of Kerguelen’s difcovery, to have been very fhy of publifhing a full and 
diftindt account of it. No fuch account had been publifhed while Captain Cook 
lived. Nay, even after the return of his fhips in 1780, the Gentleman who obligingly 
lent his affiftance to give a view of the prior obfervations of the French, and to con¬ 
nect them on the fame Chart with thofe of our Author, though his affiduity in procur¬ 
ing geographical information can be equalled only by his readinefs in communicating 
it, had not, it fhould feem, been able to procure any materials for that purpofe, but 
(a) See Cook’s Voyage, Vol. ii. p. 266. {!>) Ibid. p. 26S. 
fuch 
