A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
[Footnote 94: Captain Cook's second voyage. These islands are said to be
in the latitude of 48° S.; that is, 2° farther S. than what here appears
to be their real position.--D.]
[Footnote 95: See Cook's voyage, as above. Dr. Forster, in his
Observations made during that Voyage, p. 30, gives us this description
of the chart then communicated by Monsieur Crozet; that it was
"published under the patronage of the Duke de Croye, by Robert de
Vaugondy." Captain Cook tells us, lower in this chapter, that it was
published in 1773.--D.]
We had now, for the most part, strong gales between the N. and W., and
but very indifferent weather; not better, indeed, than we generally have
in England in the very depth of winter, though it was now the middle of
summer in this hemisphere. Not discouraged, however, by this, after
leaving Prince Edward's Islands, I shaped our course to pass to the
southward of the others, that I might get into the latitude of the land
discovered by Monsieur de Kerguelen.
I had applied to the Chevalier de Borda whom, as I have mentioned, I
found at Teneriffe, requesting, that if he knew any thing of the island
discovered by Monsieur de Kerguelen, between the Cape of Good Hope and
New Holland, he would be so obliging as to communicate it to me.
Accordingly, just before we sailed from Santa Cruz Bay, he sent me the
following account of it, viz. "That the pilot of the Boussole, who was
in the voyage with Monsieur de Kerguelen, had given him the latitude and
longitude of a little island, which Monsieur de Kerguelen called the
Isle of Rendezvous, and which lies not far from the great island which
he saw. Latitude of the little isle, by seven observations, 48° 26' S.;
longitude, by seven observations of the distance of the sun and moon,
64° 57' E. from Paris," I was very sorry I had not sooner known that
there was on board the frigate at Teneriffe, an officer who had been
with Monsieur de Kerguelen, especially the pilot; because from him I
might have obtained more interesting information about this land than
the situation alone, of which I was not before entirely ignorant.[96]
[Footnote 96: Captain Cook's proceedings, as related in the remaining
part of this chapter, and in the next, being upon a coast newly
discovered by the French, it could not but be an object of his attention
to trace the footsteps of the original explorers. But no superiority of
professional skill, nor diligence in exerting it, could possibly qualify
him to do this successfully, without possessing, at the same time, full
and authentic intelligence of all that had been performed here by his
predecessors in the discovery. But that he was not so fortunate as to be
thus sufficiently instructed, will appear from the following facts,
which the reader is requested to attend to, before he proceeds to the
perusal of this part of the journal.
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