Kerguelen Journal Of Early Voyages

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30454, 30 May 1964, Page 12

Kerguelen Journal Of Early Voyages

(From the London Correspondent of "The Press")

A translation and, later, a photostat of a 266-page unpublished, original journal dealing with the voyages of the French explorer Yves de Kerguelen in the southern oceans and containing references of particular interest to New Zealand are to be presented to the Turnbull Library, Wellington. The donor, Mr Rex Nan Kivell, the eminent New Zea-land-born picture-dealer and art-collector and director of the Redfern Gallery in the West End, showed the journal in its original vellum cover. It was discovered in Paris by a friend who “searches for these things for me.” The price paid Mr Nan Kivell was £5OOO. The price it might bring at auction? “Astronomical,” he said, judged by what the copies of Captain Cook’s published logs were worth. Probably the most famous French voyager in the southern oceans, Yves de Kerguelen, after whom the Kerguelen

Islands are named, led an expedition of three ships, L’Oiseau, Le Roland, and La Dauphine, through them in 1773-1774. It appears that Kerguelen sailed in L’Oiseau, in which ship also was the author of this journal, one de Mantyn, an officer about whom more facts are being sought. In his journal, de Mantyn expresses the hope—one which was fulfilled—that they would not visit New Zealand because of the savages there and the lack of fruit. The journal commences on October 19, 1773. On December 24, there la an entry which suggests that another ship has been sighted, and there is conjecture as to whether it is that of Rosili ( a man yet to be identified) or of Captain Cook, then on his second great voyage. “. . . qu’il n’y avoit . . . Rosili ou le captaine Cook le meme qui nous a si bien fait connoitre la Nouvelle Zeelande et . . . le voyage a ete ecrit par les savans Banks et Solander il devoit revinir dans les parages en menu chercher terres de M. de K. . . .” But Cook, according to Mr Nan Kivell’s research, was 300 miles away at the time.