A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18) by Robert Kerr

R >> Robert Kerr >> A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 15 (of 18)

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Of these latter operations, the only account (if that can be called an
account, which conveys no particular information) received by Captain
Cook from Monsieur Crozet, was, that a later voyage had been undertaken
by the French, under the command of Captain Kerguelen, which had ended
much to the disgrace of that commander.

What Crozet had not communicated to our author, and what we are sure,
from a variety of circumstances, he had never heard of from any other
quarter, he missed an opportunity of learning at Teneriffe. He expressed
his being sorry, as we have just read, that he did not know sooner that
there was on board the frigate an officer who had been with Kerguelen,
as he might have obtained from him more interesting information about
this land, than its situation. And, indeed, if he had conversed with
that officer, he might have obtained information more interesting than
he was aware of; he might have learnt that Kerguelen had actually
visited this southern land a second time, and that the little isle of
which he then received the name and position from the Chevalier de
Borda, was a discovery of this later voyage. But the account conveyed to
him, being, as the reader will observe, unaccompanied with any date, or
other distinguishing circumstance, he left Teneriffe, and arrived on the
coasts of Kerguelen's Land, under a full persuasion that it had been
visited only once before. And, even with regard to the operations of
that first voyage, he had nothing to guide him, but the very scanty
materials afforded to him by Baron Plettenberg and Monsieur Crozet.

The truth is, the French seem, for some reason or other, not surely
founded on the importance of Kerguelen's discovery, to have been very
shy of publishing a full and distinct account of it. No such account had
been published while Captain Cook lived. Nay, even after the return of
his ships in 1780, the gentleman who obligingly lent his assistance to
give a view of the prior observations of the French, and to connect them
on the same chart with those of our author, though his assiduity in
procuring geographical information can be equalled only by his readiness
in communicating it, had not, it should seem, been able to procure any
materials for that purpose, but such as mark the operations of the first
French voyage; and even for these, he was indebted to a MS. drawing.

But this veil of unnecessary secrecy is at length drawn aside. Kerguelen
himself has published the journal of his proceedings in two successive
voyages, in the years 1772 and 1773; and has annexed to his narrative a
chart of the coasts of this land, as far as he had explored them in both
voyages. Monsieur de Pages, also, much about the same time, favoured us
with another account of the second voyage, in some respects fuller than
Kerguelen's own, on board whose ship he was then an officer.

From these sources of authentic information, we are enabled to draw
every necessary material to correct what is erroneous, and to illustrate
what, otherwise, would have remained obscure, in this part of Captain
Cook's journal. We shall take occasion to do this in separate notes on
the passages as they occur, and conclude this tedious, but, it is hoped,
not unnecessary, detail of facts, with one general remark, fully
expressive of the disadvantages our author laboured under. He never saw
that part of the coast upon which the French had been in 1772; and he
never knew that they had been upon another part of it in 1773, which was
the very scene of his own operations. Consequently, what he knew of the
former voyage, as delineated upon Crozet's chart, only served to perplex
and mislead his judgment; and his total ignorance of the latter, put it
out of his power to compare his own observations with those then made by
Kerguelen; though we, who are better instructed, can do this, by tracing
the plainest marks of coincidence and agreement.--D.]

My instructions directing me to examine it, with a view to discover a
good harbour, I proceeded in the search; and on the 16th, being then in
the latitude of 48 deg. 45', and in the longitude of 52 deg. E., we saw penguins
and divers, and rock-weed floating in the sea. We continued to meet with
more or less of these every day, as we proceeded to the eastward; and on
the 21st, in the latitude of 48 deg. 27' S., and in the longitude of 65 deg. E.,
a very large seal was seen. We had now much foggy weather, and as we
expected to fall in with the land every hour, our navigation became both
tedious and dangerous.

At length, on the 24th, at six o'clock in the morning, as we were
steering to the eastward, the fog clearing away a little, we saw
land,[97] bearing S.S.E., which, upon a nearer approach, we found to be
an island of considerable height, and about three leagues in
circuit.[98] Soon after, we saw another of the same magnitude, one
league to the eastward;[99] and between these two, in the direction of
S.E., some smaller ones.[100] In the direction of S. by E. 1/2 E., from
the E. end of the first island, a third[101] high island was seen. At
times, as the fog broke away, we had the appearance of land over the
small islands; and I had thoughts of steering for it, by running in
between them. But, on drawing nearer, I found this would be a dangerous
attempt, while the weather continued foggy. For if there should be no
passage, or if we should meet with any sudden danger, it would have been
impossible for us to get off; the wind being right a-stern, and a
prodigious sea running, that broke on all the shores in a frightful
surf. At the same time, seeing another island in the N.E. direction, and
not knowing but that their might be more, I judged it prudent to haul
off, and wait for clearer weather, lest we should get entangled amongst
unknown lands in a thick fog.

[Footnote 97: Captain Cook was not the original discoverer of these
small islands which he now fell in with. It is certain that they had
been seen and named by Kerguelen, on his second voyage, in December
1773. Their position, relatively to each other, and to the adjoining
coasts of the greater land, bears a striking resemblance to Kerguelen's
delineation of them; whose chart, however, the public may be assured,
was unknown in England till after that accompanying the account of this
third voyage had been engraved.--D.]

[Footnote 98: This is the isle to which Kerguelen gave the name of Croy,
or Crouy. Besides delineating it upon his chart, he has added a
particular view of it, exactly corresponding with Captain Cook's account
of its being of considerable height.--D.]

[Footnote 99: Kerguelen called this Isle Rolland, after the name of his
own ship. There is also a particular view of it on the French
chart.--D.]

[Footnote 100: The observations of the French and English navigators
agree exactly as to the position of these smaller isles.--D.]

[Footnote 101: The situation of Kerguelen's Isle de Clugny, as marked on
this chart, shews it to be the third high island seen by Captain
Cook.--D.]

We did but just weather the island last mentioned. It is a high round
rock, which was named Bligh's Cap. Perhaps this is the same that
Monsieur de Kerguelen called the Isle of Rendezvous;[102] but I know
nothing that can rendezvous at it, but fowls of the air; for it is
certainly inaccessible to every other animal.

[Footnote 102: This isle, or rock, was the single point about which
Captain Cook had received the least information at Teneriffe; and we may
observe how sagacious he was in tracing it. What he could only speak of
as probable, a comparison of his chart with that lately published by
Kerguelen, proves to be certain; and if he had even read and copied what
his predecessor in the discovery says of it, he could scarcely have
varied his account of its shape. Kerguelen's words are, "Isle de
Reunion, qui n'est qu'une Roche, nous servoit de Rendezvous, ou de point
de ralliement; et ressemble a un coin de mire."--D.]

At eleven o'clock the weather began to clear up, and we immediately
tacked, and steered in for the land. At noon, we had a pretty good
observation, which enabled us to determine the latitude of Bligh's Cap,
which is the northernmost island, to be 48 deg. 29' S., and its longitude
68 deg. 40' E.'[103] We passed it at three o'clock, standing to the S.S.E.,
with a fresh gale at W.

[Footnote 103: The French and English agree very nearly (as might be
expected) in their accounts of the latitude of this island; but the
observations by which they fix its longitude vary considerably. The
pilot at Teneriffe made it only 64 deg. 57' E. from Paris, which is about
67 deg. 16' E. from London; or 1 deg. 24' more westerly than Captain Cook's
observations fix it. Monsieur de Pages says it is 66 deg. 47' E. from Paris,
that is, 69 deg. 6' E. from London, or twenty-six miles more easterly than
it is placed by Captain Cook. Kerguelen himself only says that it is
about 68 deg. of E. longitude, _par_ 68 deg. _de longitude_.--D.]

Soon after we saw the land, of which we had a faint view in the morning;
and at four o'clock it extended from S.E. 1/2 E., to S.W. by S., distant
about four miles. The left extreme, which I judged to be the northern
point of this land, called, in the French chart of the southern
hemisphere, Cape St Louis,[104] terminated in a perpendicular rock of a
considerable height; and the right one (near which is a detached rock)
in a high indented point.[105] From this point the coast seemed to turn
short round to the southward, for we could see no land to the westward
of the direction in which it now bore to us, but the islands we had
observed in the morning; the most southerly[106] of them lying nearly W.
from the point, about two or three leagues distant.

[Footnote 104: Hitherto, we have only had occasion to supply defects,
owing to Captain Cook's entire ignorance of Kerguelen's second voyage in
1773; we must now correct errors, owing to his very limited knowledge of
the operations of the first voyage in 1772. The chart of the southern
hemisphere, his only guide, having given him, as he tells us, the name
of Cape St Louis (or Cape Louis) as the most northerly promontory then
seen by the French; and his own observations now satisfying him that no
part of the main land stretched farther north than the left extreme now
before him; from this supposed similarity of situation, he judged that
his own perpendicular rock must be the Cape Louis of the first
discoverers. By looking upon the chart originally published with this
voyage, we shall find Cape Louis lying upon a different part of the
coast; and by comparing this chart with that published by Kerguelen, it
will appear, in the clearest manner, that the northern point now
described by Captain Cook, is the very same to which the French have
given the name of Cape Francois--D.]

[Footnote 105: This right extreme of the coast, as it now shewed itself
to Captain Cook, seems to be what is represented on Kerguelen's chart
under the name of Cape Aubert. It may be proper to observe here, that
all that extent of coast lying between Cape Louis and Cape Francois, of
which the French saw very little during their first visit in 1772, and
may be called the N.W. side of this land, they had it in their power to
trace the position of in 1773, and have assigned names to some of its
bays, rivers, and promontories, upon their chart.--D.]

[Footnote 106: Kerguelen's Isle de Clugny.--D.]

About the middle of the land there appeared to be an inlet, for which we
steered; but, on approaching, found it was a bending in the coast, and
therefore bore up, to go round Cape St Louis.[107] Soon after, land
opened off the cape, in the direction of S. 53 deg. E., and appeared to be a
point at a considerable distance; for the trending of the coast from the
cape was more southerly. We also saw several rocks and islands to the
eastward of the above directions, the most distant of which was about
seven leagues from the cape, bearing S. 88 deg. E.[108] We had no sooner got
off the cape, than we observed the coast, to the southward, to be much
indented by projecting points and bays; so that we now made sure of soon
finding a good harbour. Accordingly, we had not run a mile farther,
before we discovered one behind the cape, into which we began to ply;
but after making one board, it fell calm, and we anchored at the
entrance in forty-five fathoms water, the bottom black sand; as did the
Discovery soon after. I immediately dispatched Mr Bligh, the master, in
a boat to sound the harbour; who, on his return, reported it to be safe
and commodious, with good anchorage in every part; and great plenty of
fresh-water, seals, penguins, and other birds on the shore; but not a
stick of wood. While we lay at anchor, we observed that the flood tide
came from the S.E., running two knots, at least, in an hour.

[Footnote 107: Cape Francois, as already observed.--D.]

[Footnote 108: The observations of the French, round Cape Francois,
remarkably coincide with Captain Cook's in this paragraph; and the rocks
and islands here mentioned by him, also appear upon their chart.--D.]

At day-break, in the morning of the 25th, we weighed with a gentle
breeze at W,; and having wrought into the harbour, to within a quarter
of a mile of the sandy beach at its head, we anchored in eight fathoms
water, the bottom a fine dark sand. The Discovery did not get in till
two o'clock in the afternoon, when Captain Clerke informed me, that he
had narrowly escaped being driven on the S. point of the harbour, his
anchor having started before they had time to shorten in the cable. This
obliged them to set sail, and drag the anchor after them, till they had
room to heave it up, and then they found one of its palms was broken
off.

As soon as we had anchored, I ordered all the boats to be hoisted out,
the ship to be moored with a kedge-anchor, and the water-casks to be got
ready to send on shore. In the mean time I landed, to look for the most
convenient spot where they might be filled, and to see what else the
place afforded.

I found the shore, in a manner, covered with penguins and other birds,
and seals. These latter were not numerous, but so insensible of fear,
(which plainly indicated that they were unaccustomed to such visitors,)
that we killed as many as we chose, for the sake of their fat, or
blubber, to make oil for our lamps, and other uses. Fresh water was in
no less plenty than were birds; for every gully afforded a large stream.
But not a single tree, or shrub, nor the least sign of any, was to be
discovered, and but very little herbage of any sort. The appearances, as
we sailed into the harbour, had flattered us with the hope of meeting
with something considerable growing here, as we observed the sides of
many of the hills to be of a lively green. But I now found that this was
occasioned by a single plant, which, with the other natural productions,
shall be described in another place. Before I returned to my ship, I
ascended the first ridge of rocks, which rise in a kind of amphitheatre
above one another. I was in hopes, by this means, of obtaining a view of
the country; but before I reached the top, there came on so thick a fog,
that I could hardly find my way down again. In the evening, we hauled
the seine at the head of the harbour, but caught only half a dozen small
fish. We had no better success next day, when we tried with hook and
line. So that our only resource here, for fresh provisions, were birds,
of which there was an inexhaustible store.

The morning of the 26th proved foggy, with rain. However, we went to
work to fill water, and to cut grass for our cattle, which we found in
small spots near the head of the harbour. The rain which fell swelled
all the rivulets to such a degree, that the sides of the hills, bounding
the harbour, seemed to be covered with a sheet of water. For the rain,
as it fell, run into the fissures and crags of the rocks that composed
the interior parts of the hills, and was precipitated down their sides
in prodigious torrents.

The people having wrought hard the two preceding days, and nearly
completed our water, which we filled from a brook at the left corner of
the beach, I allowed them the 27th as a day of rest, to celebrate
Christmas. Upon this indulgence, many of them went on shore, and made
excursions, in different directions, into the country, which they found
barren and desolate in the highest degree. In the evening, one of them
brought to me a quart bottle which he had found, fastened with some wire
to a projecting rock on the north side of the harbour. This bottle
contained a piece of parchment, on which was written the following
inscription:

_Ludovico XV. Galliarum
rege, et d.[109] de Boynes
regi a Secretis ad res
maritimas annis 1772 et
1773.

[Footnote 109: The (d.), no doubt, is a contraction of the word
_Domino_. The French secretary of the marine was then Monsieur de
Boynes.--D.]

From this inscription, it is clear, that we were not the first Europeans
who had been in this harbour. I supposed it to be left by Monsieur de
Boisguehenneu, who went on shore in a boat on the 13th of February,
1772, the same day that Monsieur de Kerguelen discovered this land, as
appears by a note in the French chart of the southern hemisphere,
published the following year.[110]

[Footnote 110: On perusing this paragraph of the journal, it will be
natural to ask, How could Monsieur de Boisguehenneu, in the beginning of
1772, leave an inscription, which, upon the very face of it,
commemorates a transaction of the following year? Captain Cook's manner
of expressing himself here, strongly marks, that he made this
supposition, only for want of information to enable him to make any
other. He had no idea that the French had visited this land a second
time; and, reduced to the necessity of trying to accommodate what he saw
himself, to what little he had heard of their proceedings, he confounds
a transaction which we, who have been better instructed, know, for a
certainty, belongs to the second voyage, with a similar one, which his
chart of the southern hemisphere has recorded, and which happened in a
different year, and at a different place.

The bay, indeed, in which Monsieur de Boisguehenneu landed, is upon the
west side of this land, considerably to the south of Cape Louis, and not
far from another more southerly promontory, called Cape Bourbon; a part
of the coast which our ships were not upon. Its situation is marked upon
the chart constructed for this voyage; and a particular view of the bay
du Lion Marin, (for so Boisguehenneu called it,) with the soundings, is
preserved by Kerguelen.

But if the bottle and inscription found by Captain Cook's people were
not left here by Boisguehenneu, by whom and when were they left? This we
learn most satisfactorily, from the accounts of Kerguelen's second
voyage, as published by himself and Monsieur de Pages, which present us
with the following particulars:--"That they arrived on the west side of
this land on the 14th of December, 1773; that steering to the N.E., they
discovered, on the 16th, the Isle de Reunion, and the other small
islands as mentioned above; that, on the 17th, they had before them the
principal land, (which they were sure was connected with that seen by
them on the 14th,) and a high point of that land, named by them Cape
Francois; that beyond this cape, the coast took a south-easterly
direction, and behind it they found a bay, called by them Baie de
l'Oiseau, from the name of their frigate; that they then endeavoured to
enter it, but were prevented by contrary winds and blowing weather,
which drove them off the coast eastward; but that, at last, on the 6th
of January, Monsieur de Rosnevet, captain of the Oiseau, was able to
send his boat on shore into this bay, under the command of Monsieur de
Rochegude, one of his officers, who took possession of that bay, and of
all the country, in the name of the King of France, with all the
requisite formalities."

Here then we trace, by the most unexceptionable evidence, the history of
the bottle and inscription; the leaving of which was, no doubt, one of
the requisite formalities observed by Monsieur de Rochegude on this
occasion. And though he did not land till the 6th of January 1774, yet,
as Kerguelen's ships arrived upon the coast on the 14th of December
1773, and had discovered and looked into this very bay on the 17th of
that month, it was with the strictest propriety and truth that 1773, and
not 1774, was mentioned as the date of the discovery.

We need only look at Kerguelen's and Cook's charts, to judge that the
Baie de l'Oiseau, and the harbour where the French inscription was
found, is one and the same place. But besides this agreement as to the
general position, the same conclusion results more decisively still,
from another circumstance worth mentioning: The French, as well as the
English visitors of this bay and harbour, have given us a particular
plan of it; and whoever compares them, must be struck with a resemblance
that could only be produced by copying one common original with
fidelity. Nay, even the soundings are the same upon the same spots in
both plans, being forty-five fathoms between the two capes, before the
entrance of the bay; sixteen fathoms farther in, where the shores begin
to contract; and eight fathoms up, near the bottom of the harbour.

To these particulars, which throw abundant light on this part of our
author's journal, I shall only add, that the distance of our harbour
from that where Boisguehenneu landed in 1772, is forty leagues. For
this we have the authority of Kerguelen, in the following
passage:--"Monsieur de Boisguehenneu descendit le 13 de Fevrier 1772,
dans un baie, qu'il nomme Baie du Lion Marin, & prit possession de cette
terre au nom de Roi; il n'y vit aucune trace d'habitants. Monsieur de
Rochegude, en 1774, a descendu dans un autre baie, que nous avons nomme
Baie de l'Oiseau, & cette seconde rade est a quarantes lieues de la
premiere. Il en a egalement pris possession, & il n'y trouva egalement
aucune trace d'habitants." _Kerguelen_, p. 92.--D.]

As a memorial of our having been in this harbour, I wrote on the other
side of the parchment,

_Naves Resolution
et Discovery
de Rege Magnae Britanniae,
Decembris_ 1776.

I then put it again into a bottle, together with a silver two-penny
piece of 1772; and having covered the mouth of the bottle with a leaden
cap, I placed it the next morning in a pile of stones erected for the
purpose, upon a little eminence on the north shore of the harbour, and
near to the place where it was first found, in which position it cannot
escape the notice of any European, whom chance or design may bring into
this port. Here I displayed the British flag, and named the place
Christmas Harbour, from our having arrived in it on that festival.

It is the first or northernmost inlet that we meet with on the S.E. side
of the Cape St Louis,[111] which forms the N. side of the harbour, and
is also the northern point of this land. The situation alone is
sufficient to distinguish it from any of the other inlets; and, to make
it more remarkable, its S. point terminates in a high rock, which is
perforated quite through, so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. We
saw none like this upon the whole coast.[112] The harbour has another
distinguishing mark within, from a single stone or rock, of a vast size,
which lies on the top of a hill on the S. side, near its bottom; and
opposite this, on the N. side, there is another hill, much like it, but
smaller. There is a small beach at its bottom, where we commonly landed;
and, behind it, some gently rising ground, on the top of which is a
large pool of fresh-water. The land on both sides of the inlet is high,
and it runs in W., and W.N.W., about two miles. Its breadth is one mile
and a quarter, for more than half its length, above which it is only
half a mile. The depth of water, which is forty-five fathoms at the
entrance, varies, as we proceed farther in, from thirty to five and
four fathoms. The shores are steep; and the bottom is every where a fine
dark sand, except in some places close to the shore, where there are
beds of sea-weed, which always grows on rocky ground. The head of the
harbour lies open only to two points of the compass; and even these are
covered by islands in the offing, so that no sea can fall in to hurt a
ship. The appearances on shore confirmed this; for we found grass
growing close to high-water mark, which is a sure sign of a pacific
harbour.[113] It is high-water here, at the full and change days, about
ten o'clock; and the tide rises and falls about four feet.

[Footnote 111: Cape Francois, for reasons already assigned.--D.]

[Footnote 112: If there could be the least doubt remaining, of the
identity of the Baie de l'Oiseau and Christmas Harbour, the circumstance
of the perforated rock, which divides it from another bay to the south,
would amount to a strict demonstration. For Monsieur de Pages had
observed this discriminating mark before Captain Cook. His words are as
follows:--"L'on vit que la cote de l'Est, voisine du Cap Francois, avoit
deux baies; elles etoient separees par une pointe tres reconnoissable
par sa forme, _qui representoit une porte cochere, au travers de
laquelle l'on voyoit le jour_."--Voyages du M. de Pages, vol. ii. p. 67.
Every one knows how exactly the form of a _porte cochere_, or arched
gateway, corresponds with that of the arch of a bridge. It is very
satisfactory to find the two navigators, neither of whom knew any thing
of the other's description, adopting the same idea; which both proves
that they had the same uncommon object before their eyes, and that they
made an accurate report.--D.]