We Must Now Direct Our Attention To The Southern Polar Regions.
Geographers
and philosophers supposed that in this portion of the globe there must be
some continent or very large
Island, which would serve, as it were, to
counterbalance the immense tracts of land which, to the northward,
stretched not only as near the pole, as navigation had been able to
proceed, but also west and east, the whole breadth of Europe and Asia.
The second voyage of Captain Cook was planned and undertaken for the
express purpose of solving the question respecting the Terra Australis
which occupied the older maps. He sailed on this voyage in July 1772,
having under his command two ships, particularly well adapted and fitted up
for such a service, the Resolution and Adventure; he was accompanied by a
select band of officers, most of whom were not only skilful and experienced
navigators, but also scientific astronomers and geographers; there were
also two professed astronomers, two gentlemen who were well skilled in
every branch of natural history, and a landscape painter.
On the 12th of December, Captain Cook entered the loose and floating ice,
in latitude 62 deg. 10'; on the 21st he met with icebergs in latitude 67 deg.; and
by the end of the month he returned to latitude 58 deg.. On the 26th of January
in the following year, he again penetrated within the Antarctic circle, and
on the 30th, had got as far as latitude 71 deg. 16'. This was the utmost point
to which he was able to penetrate; and he was so fully persuaded, not only
of the impracticability of being able to sail further to the south, but
also of remaining in that latitude, that he returned to the northward the
very same day, deeming it, as he expresses it, a dangerous and rash
enterprize to struggle with fields of ice. "I," he continues, "who had
ambition not only to go farther than any one before, but as far as it was
possible for man to go, was not sorry to meet with this interruption." The
existence of a southern continent was thus considered by Captain Cook, and
all other geographers, as disproved to an almost absolute certainty.
In this voyage Captain Cook also obtained a correct knowledge of the land
discovered by La Roche in 1675, and gave to it the name of New Georgia; he
discovered, too, Sandwich land, which was then supposed to be the nearest
land to the South Pole; he ascertained the extent of the Archipelago, of
the New Hebrides, which had been originally seen by Quiros, and
superficially examined by Bougainville. New Caledonia, and many of the
islands among the groupe to which he gave the name of the Friendly Islands,
were also among the fruits of this voyage.
The French government had sent out an expedition, about the same time that
Captain Cook sailed in quest of a southern continent, on a similar pursuit.
A French navigator some time before had stated that he had discovered land,
having been driven far to the south, off the Cape of Good Hope. This
supposed land the expedition alluded to was also to look after. The person
selected to conduct it, M. De Kerguelen, does not seem to have been well
chosen or qualified for such an enterprize; for after having discovered
land, situated in 49 deg. south latitude, and 69 deg. east longitude from
Greenwich, he returned rather precipitately to France, without having
explored this land, concluding very rashly, and without any sufficient
grounds, that the Terra Australis was at length ascertained to exist, and
its exact situation determined. He was received and treated in France as a
second Columbus: but as the French court seems to have had some doubts on
the extent and merit of his alleged discoveries, notwithstanding the
reception which it gave him, he was sent out a second time, with two ships
of war of 64 and 32 guns each, and 700 men, to complete his discovery and
take possession of this new continent. But he soon ascertained, what indeed
he might and ought to have ascertained in his first voyage, that what he
deemed and represented to be the Terra Australis was only a dreary and
inhospitable island, of small size, so very barren and useless, that it
produces no tree or even shrub of any kind, and very little grass. On such
an island, in such a part of the globe, no inhabitants could be looked for;
but it is even almost entirely destitute of animals; and the surrounding
sea is represented as not more productive than the land. The French
navigator was unable to find safe anchorage in this island, though it
abounded in harbours; to this miserable spot he gave his own name. It was
afterwards visited by Captain Cook, in his third voyage, and also by
Peyrouse.
As the southern ocean, in as high a latitude as the climate and the ice
rendered accessible and safe, had been as it were swept carefully,
extensively, and minutely, by Captain Cook, and some subsequent navigators,
without discovering land of any considerable extent, it was naturally
supposed that no southern continent or even large island existed.
In the year 1819, however, this disbelief was partly destroyed by an
unexpected and singular discovery. Mr. Smith, who commanded a vessel
trading between Rio Plato and Chili, was naturally desirous to shorten, as
much as possible, his passage round Cape Horn. With this object in view, he
ran to a higher latitude than is usual in such voyages; and in latitude 62 deg.
30' and in longitude 60 deg. west, he discovered land. This was in his voyage
out to Chili; but as he could not then spare the time necessary to explore
this land, he resolved to follow the same course on his return voyage, and
ascertain its extent, nature, &c. This he accordingly did; and likewise on
a subsequent voyage. "He ran in a westward direction along the coasts,
either of a continent or numerous islands, for 200 or 300 miles, forming
large bays, and abounding with the spermaceti whale, seals, &c. He took
numerous soundings and bearings, draughts and charts of the coast." He also
landed and took possession of the country in the name of his sovereign, and
called his acquisition New South Shetland.
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