Returning to Mauritius on the 8th of December, Kerguelen hurried his preparations for departure to such an extent that he was able to start upon the 12th of January, 1772. He steered southwards, for, supposing that he found land in that direction, the nearest would naturally be the most useful for the French colony.
From the 1st of February, numbers of birds seemed to indicate the proximity of land. Hail succeeded snow. The vessels experienced foul weather, boisterous winds, and a heavy sea. The first land was sighted upon the 12th. Next day a second was discovered, and shortly afterwards a very lofty and extensive cape. The following day at seven o'clock in the morning, the sun having dispelled the clouds, a line of coast extending some twenty-five leagues was clearly seen. The vessels were then in 49° 40' S. lat. and 61° 10' E. long.
Unfortunately storm succeeded storm, and the two vessels with great difficulty escaped being cast ashore. Kerguelen was driven northward by currents, shortly after he had sent a boat to attempt a landing.
"Finding myself so far from land," says Kerguelen, "I reflected upon the best course to be pursued. I remembered that the state of my mast was too bad to allow me to crowd sail, and leave the coast, and that, having no sloop to carry my anchors, I was exposed to extreme danger whilst near the shore, that in the dense fog it was all but impossible to find the Gros-ventre, from which I had been separated for several days. It was the more difficult on account of the tempest we had experienced, and the variable winds that prevailed. These reflections and my conviction that the Gros-ventre was an excellent sailer, and that she was provisioned for seven months, determined me to return to Mauritius, which I reached upon the 16th of March." Fortunately no accident had happened to the Gros-ventre. Her boat had returned in time; M. de Boisguehenneuc, who had landed, had taken possession of the land with all the usual formalities, and left some writing in a bottle, which was found by Captain Cook in 1776.
Kerguelen returned to France, but his successful enterprise had gained him many enemies. When upon the 1st of January, 1772, the king nominated him captain, and Chevalier de Saint Louis, the attacks upon him increased. The most malignant slanders were circulated. They even went the length of accusing him of having scuttled the Gros-ventre in order to derive all the benefit accruing from the discovery which he had made in concert with M. de Saint Allouarn.
The minister, however, was not influenced by these slanders, and decided to entrust the command of a second expedition to Kerguelen. The Roland, and the frigate Oiseau, left Brest upon the 26th of March, 1772, the latter under command of M. de Saux de Rosnevet.
Upon reaching the Cape, Kerguelen was obliged to put in for forty days. The entire crew was suffering from putrid fever, probably owing to the dampness of the new vessel.
"This appeared the more probable," says the narrative, "because all the dried vegetables, such as peas, beans, lentils, &c., together with the rice, and a quantity of biscuits, were spoiled in the store-room. The vegetables emitted a kind of steam which was infectious, and the store-rooms became infested with numbers of white worms. The Roland left the Cape upon the 11th of July, but she was almost immediately overtaken by a frightful tempest, which carried away two topsails, the jib, and the mizen mast. Finally Mauritius was reached by means of jury-masts."
MM. de Roches and Poivre, who had contributed so essentially to the success of the first expedition, had been succeeded by M. de Ternay and the Intendant Maillard. They appeared determined to offer every possible obstacle to the execution of Kerguelen's orders. They gave him no fresh victuals, of which the crew had pressing need, and there were no means of replacing the masts destroyed by the tempest. In lieu of the thirty-four sailors who had to go to the hospital, he was provided only with disgraced or maimed soldiers, of whom he was glad to rid himself. An expedition to the southern seas, so equipped, could only come to a disastrous end; and that was precisely what happened.
On the 5th of January, Kerguelen sighted the lands he had discovered in his first voyage, and between that date and the 16th he recognized various points, Croy Island, Re-union Island, Roland Island, which in his estimation made more than eighty leagues of coast. The weather continued extremely severe; thick fogs, snow, hail, and gales succeeded each other. On the 21st, the vessels could only keep in company by constant firing. Upon that day the cold was so severe that several of the sailors fainted on deck.