[133]. Cap François.
[134]. Cap François.
[135]. This part of the coast seems to be what the French saw on the 5th of January, 1774. Monsieur de Pagés speaks of it thus: “Nous reconnumes une nouvelle côte etendue de toute vue dans l’est, et dans le ouest. Les terres de cette côte étoient moins elevées que celles que nous avions vues jusques ici; elles étoient aussi d’un aspect moins rude.” De Pagés, tom. ii. p. 68.
[136]. See Hawkesworth’s Collection of Voyages, Vol. ii. p. 42.
[137]. If the French observations, as marked upon Captain Cook’s chart, and still more authentically upon that published by their own discoverers, may be depended upon, this land doth not reach so far to the west as the meridian of 68°; Cape Louis, which is represented as its most westerly point, being laid down by them to the east of that meridian.
[138]. The idea of Cape Louis being this projecting point of a southern continent, must have soon vanished, as Cape François, within a year after, was found, by the same discoverer, to lie above one third of a degree farther north upon the same land. But if Kerguelen entertained any such imagination at first, we are sure that, at present, he thinks very differently. This appears from the following explicit declaration of his sentiments, which deserves to be transcribed from his late publication, as it does equal honour to his candour, and to Captain Cook’s abilities. “La terre que j’ai découverte est certainement une isle; puisque le célèbre Capitaine Cook a passé au sud, lors de son premier voyage, sans rien rencontrer. Je juge même, que cette isle n’est pas bien grande. Il y a aussi apparence, d’après le Voyage de Monsieur Cook, que toute cette étendue de mers meridionales, est semée d’isles ou de rochers; mais qu’il n’y a ni continent ni grande terre.” Kerguelen, p. 92.
[139]. Kerguelen, as we see in the last note, concurs with Captain Cook as to this. However, he tells us, that he has reason to believe that it is about two hundred leagues in circuit; and that he was acquainted with about fourscore leagues of its coast. “J’en connois environs quatre-vingt lieues des côtes; et j’ai lieu de croire, qu’elle a environ deux cents lieues de circuit.” Kerguelen, ibid.
[140]. Some of Monsieur de Kerguelen’s own countrymen seem more desirous than we are, to rob him of this honour. It is very remarkable that Monsieur de Pagés never once mentions the name of his commander. And, though he takes occasion to enumerate the several French explorers of the southern hemisphere, from Gonneville down to Crozet, he affects to preserve an entire silence about Kerguelen, whose first voyage, in which the discovery of this considerable tract of land was made, is kept as much out of sight, as if it never had taken place. Nay, not satisfied with refusing to acknowledge the right of another, he almost assumes it to himself. For, upon a Map of the World annexed to his book, at the spot where the new land is delineated, we read this inscription: Isles nouvelles Australes vuées par Monsieur de Pagés, en 1774. He could scarcely have expressed himself in stronger terms, if he had meant to convey an idea that he was the conductor of the discovery. And yet we know, that he was only a lieutenant [enseigne de vaisseau] on board one of the three ships commanded by Kerguelen; and that the discovery had been already made in a former voyage, undertaken while he was actually engaged in his singular journey round the world.
After all, it cannot but be remarked that Kerguelen was peculiarly unfortunate, in having done so little to complete what he had begun. He discovered a new land indeed; but, in two expeditions to it, he could not once bring his ships to an anchor upon any part of its coasts. Captain Cook, as we have seen in this, and in the foregoing chapter, had either fewer difficulties to struggle with, or was more successful in surmounting them.
[141]. Pennant’s Patagonian penguin. See his Genera of Birds. Tab. 14. p. 66.