66 
A VOYAGE TO 
1776. place where it was firft found ; in which pofition it cannot 
ecempen. e p ca p e not j ce G f any European, whom chance or defign 
may bring into this port. Here I difplayed the Britifh flag, 
and named the place Chriflmas Harbour , from our having 
arrived in it on that feftival. 
It is the fir ft, or northernmoft inlet that we meet with on 
the South Eaft fide of Cape St. Louis *, which forms the 
North fide of the harbour, and is alfo the Northern point of 
this land. The fituation alone is fuflicient to diftinguifh it 
from any of the other inlets; and, to make it more remark¬ 
able, its South point terminates in a high rock, which is 
perforated quite through, fo as to appear like the arch of a 
bridge. We faw none like this upon the whole coaft t. The 
harbour 
as the Englilh vihters of this bay and harbour, have given us a particular Plan of it; and 
whoever compares ours, published in this Volume, with that to be met with in Kergue¬ 
len’s and de Pages’s Voyages, muft be ftruck with a refemblance that could only be pro¬ 
duced by copying one common original with fidelity. Nay, even the foundings are the 
fame upon the fame fpots in both Flans, being forty-five fathoms between the two Capes, 
before the entrance of the bay ; fixteen fathoms farther in, where the fhores begin to con¬ 
tract ; and eight fathoms up, near the bottom of the harbour. 
To thefe particulars, which throw abundant light on this part of our Author’s Journal, 
1 fhall only add, that the diftance of our harbour from that where Boifguehenneu landed 
in 1772, is forty leagues. For this we have the authority of Kerguelen, in the following 
paflage : “ Monfieur de Boifguehenneu defcendit le 13 de Fevrier 1772, dans un baie, 
w qu’il nomme Baie du Lion Marin, & prit pofieffion de cette terre au nom de Roi; il 
w n’y vit aucune trace d’habitants. Monfieur de Rochegude, en 1774, a defcendu dans 
u un autre baie, que nous avons nomme Baie de l’Oifeau, Sc cette feconde rade eft a qua- 
u rantes lieues de la premiere. II en a egalement pris pofieffion, Sc il n’y trouva egale- 
“ ment aucune trace d’habitants.” Kerguelen , p. 92. 
* Cape Francois, for reafons already affigned. 
f If there could be the leaft doubt remaining of the identity of the Baie de l’Oifeau, 
and Chriftmas harbour, the circumftance of the perforated rock, which divides it from 
another bay to the South, would amount to a ftriCt demonftration. For Monfieur de 
Pages had obferved this difcriminating mark before Captain Cook. His words are as 
follows ; u L’on vit que la cote de 1 ’Eft, voifine du Cap Fran^ois, avoit deux bales; 
w elles 
