Note 140 — CHAP. V.

Some of Monsieur de Kerguelen’s own countrymen seem more desirous than we are, to rob him of this honour. It is very remarkable that Monsieur de Pagés 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 Pagés, 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 one of the 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.