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.
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