We continued our course to the S.E. with a very strong gale from the westward, followed by a mountainous sea, which made the ship roll and tumble exceedingly, and gave us a great deal of trouble to preserve the cattle we had on board. Notwithstanding all our care, several goats, especially the males, died, and some sheep. This misfortune was, in a great measure, owing to the cold, which we now began most sensibly to feel.
On the 12th, at noon, we saw land extending from S.E. by S. to S.E. by E. Upon a nearer approach we found it to be two islands. That which lies most to the south, and is also the largest, I judged to be about fifteen leagues in circuit, and to be in the latitude of 46° 53' S. and in the longitude of 37° 46' E. The most northerly one is about nine leagues in circuit, and lies in the latitude of 46° 40' S. and in 38° 8' E. longitude. The distance from the one to the other is about five leagues.
We passed through this channel at equal distance from both islands; and could not discover, with the assistance of our best glasses, either tree or shrub on either of them. They seemed to have a rocky and bold shore; and, excepting the S.E. parts, where the land is rather low and flat, a surface composed of barren mountains, which rise to a considerable height, and whose summits and sides were covered with snow, which in many places seemed to be of a considerable depth. The S.E. parts had a much greater quantity on them than the rest, owing, probably, to the sun acting for a less space of time on these than on the N. and N.W. parts. The ground, where it was not hid by the snow, from the various shades it exhibited, may be supposed to be covered with moss, or perhaps such a coarse grass as is found in some parts of Falkland's Islands. On the N. side of each of the islands is a detached rock; that near the S. island is shaped like a tower, and seemed to be at some distance from the shore. As we passed along, a quantity of seaweed was seen, and the colour of the water indicated soundings. But there was no appearance of an inlet, unless near the rock just mentioned; and that, from its smallness, did not promise a good anchoring-place.
These two islands, as also four others which lie from nine to twelve degrees of longitude more to the E. and nearly in the same latitude, were discovered, as I have mentioned in my late voyage,[94] by Captains Marion du Fresne and Crozet, French navigators, in January, 1772, on their passage in two ships from the Cape of Good Hope to the Philippine Islands. As they have no names in the French chart of the southern hemisphere, which Captain Grozet communicated to me in 1775,[95] I shall distinguish the two we now saw by calling them Prince Edward's Islands, after his majesty's fourth son; and the other four, by the name of Marion's and Crozet's Islands, to commemorate their discoverers.