[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.