THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
As a memorial of our having been in this harbour, I 
wrote on the other fide of the parchment, 
Naves Refolution 
et Difcovery 
de Rege Magna Britannia , 
Decembris 1776. 
I then put it again into a bottle, together with a filver two¬ 
penny piece of 1772 ; and having covered the mouth of the 
bottle with a leaden cap, I placed it, the next morning, in 
a pile of ftones erected for the purpofe, upon a little emi¬ 
nence on the North fhore of the harbour, and near to the 
place 
they difcovered, on the 16th, the Ijle de Reunion , and the other fmall iflands as mentioned 
above ; that, on the 17th, they had before them the principal land (which they were fure 
was connected with that feen by them on the 14th), and a high point of that land, named 
by them Cape Francois ; that beyond this Cape, the coaft took a South Eafterly direc¬ 
tion, and behind it they found a bay, called by them Bate de l’Oifeau , from the name of 
their frigate; that they then endeavoured to enter it, but were prevented by contrary 
winds and blowing weather, which drove them off the coaft E aft ward; but that, at laft, 
on the 6th of January, Monfieur de Rofnevet, Captain of the Oifeau, was able to fend his 
boat on fhore into this bay, under the command of Monfieur de Rochegude, one of his 
officers, who took pojfejfion of that hay , and of all the country , in the name of the King of 
France , with all the requifiteformalities.” 
Here then we trace, by the moft unexceptionable evidence, the hiftory of the bottle 
and infcription ; tire leaving of which was, no doubt, one of the requifite formalities ob- 
ferved by Monfieur de Rochegude on this occafion. And though he did not land till the 
6th of January 1774, yet, as Kerguelen’s fhips arrived upon the coaft on the 14th of 
December 1773, and had difcovered and looked into this very bay on the 17th of that 
month, it was with the ftridteft propriety and truth that 1773, and not 1774, was men¬ 
tioned as the date of the difcovery. 
We need only look at Kerguelen’s and Cook’s Charts, to judge that the Baie de 
l Oifeau , and the harbour where the French infcription was found, is one and foe fame 
place. But beftdes this agreement as to foe general pofition, the fame conclufion refults 
more decifively ftill., from another circumftance worth mentioning : The French, as well 
^ 0 L. I. K 
6 S 
1776. 
December. 
1 - - 
Saturday 28. 
