At this time Cape George bore S. 53° W. distant about seven leagues. A small island that lies off the pitch of the cape was the only land we could see to the south of it; and we were farther confirmed that there was no more in that quarter by a S.W. swell which we met as soon as we brought the cape to bear in this direction.
But we have still a stronger proof that no part of this land can extend much, if at all, to the southward of Cape George, and that is, Captain Furneaux's track in February, 1773, after his separation from me during my late voyage. His log-book is now lying before me; and I find from it, that he crossed the meridian of the land only about seventeen leagues to the southward of Cape George, a distance at which it may very well be seen in clear weather. This seems to have been the case when Captain Furneaux passed it. For his log-book makes no mention of fogs or hazy weather; on the contrary, it expressly tells us, that, when in this situation, they had it in their power to make observations, both for latitude and longitude, on board his ship; so that, if this land extends farther S. than Cape George, it would have been scarcely possible that he should have passed without seeing it.
From these circumstances we are able to determine, within a very, few miles, the quantity of latitude that this land occupies, which does not much exceed one degree and a quarter. As to its extent from E. to W. that still remains undecided. We only know, that no part of it can reach so far to the W. as the meridian of 65°, because, in 1773, under that meridian, I searched for it in vain.[121]
[Footnote 121: 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 W. as the meridian of 63°; Cape Louis, which is represented as its most westerly point, being laid down by them to the E. of that meridian.--D.]
The French discoverers, with some reason, imagined Cape St Louis[122] to be the projecting point, of the southern continent. The English have since proved that no such continent exists, and that the land in question is an island of no great extent;[123] which, from its sterility, I should, with great propriety, call the Island of Desolation, but that I would not rob Monsieur de Kerguelen of the honour of its bearring his name.[124]
[Footnote 122: 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 N. upon the same land. But if Kerguelen entertained any such imagination at first, we are sure that afterwards he thought 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 Captain Cook's abilities:--"La terre que j'ai decouverte est certainement une Isle; puisque le célebre Capitaine Cook a passé au Sud, lors de son premiere voyage, sans rien rencontrer. Je juge inême, que cette isle n'est pas bien grande. Il y a aussi apparence, d'apres le Voyage de Monsieur Cook, que toute cette étendue de Mers Meridionales, est semée d'lsles ou de rochers; mais qu'il n'y a ni continent ni grande terre." Kerguelen, p. 92.--D.]
[Footnote 123: 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 200 leagues in circuit; and that he was acquainted with about fourscore leagues of its coast. "J'en connois environs quatre-vingt lieues des cotes; et; j'ai lieu de croire, qu'elle a environ deux cents lieues de circuit." Kerguelen, page 32--D.]
[Footnote 124: Some of Monsieur de Kerguelen's own countrymen seem more desirous than we are to rob him of his honour. It is very remarkable, that Monsieur de Pagès 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 Pagès, 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 of one of 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.--D.]
Mr Anderson, my surgeon, who, as I have already mentioned, had made natural history a part of his studies, lost no opportunity, during the short time we lay in Christmas Harbour, of searching the country in every direction. He afterward communicated to me the observations he made on its natural productions; and I shall insert them here in his own words.
"Perhaps no place hitherto discovered in either hemisphere, under the same parallel of latitude, affords so scanty a field for the naturalist as this barren spot. The verdure which appears, when at a little distance from the shore, would flatter one with the expectation of meeting with some herbage; but in this we were much deceived. For on landing, we saw that this lively colour was occasioned only by one small plant, not much unlike some sorts of saxifrage, which grows in large spreading tufts to a considerable way up the hills. It forms a surface of a pretty large texture, and grows on a kind of rotten turf, into which one sinks a foot or two at every step. This turf, dried, might, in cases of necessity, serve for fuel, and is the only thing we met with here that could possibly be applied to this use."