Waterbury evening Democrat., 1893-05-20
ISLANDS OF FACT AND FANCY
Some Interesting Stories iRegarding Ker.
 guelen, the Land of Desolation.

Some Interesting Stories iRegarding Ker-
 guelen, the Land of Desolation.
 The islands of Kerguelen, of which France has recently taken possession, were well named by Cook the Land of Desolation." Their history, however, is not without interest. They were the cause of the rise and fall of young French admiral of the last century; their rocky coasts appear in two recent French novels, and there still cruises around them the last of the American whalers which were once seen so often in the South seas. No one seems to know the Yankee captain well, though few South sea navigatorS have not seen him. In 1772 the Chevalier de Kergue- len, admiral in the French fleet, discov- cred these islands. As the exploring parties sent short distances into the in terior of the largest island did not reach the farther coast, De Kerguelen became convinced that he had discov- cred the great southern continent of which geographers had written much. He hastened back to France and pc titioned the king so earnestly to take possession of the new land that an eX- petition was fitted out for that purpose and placed under De Kerguelen's com mand. The land was soon found to be only group of volcanic islands, and the admiral was forced to return to Paris and to acknowledge his mistake. The admiralty. stung by the ridicule of the people. called a court-martial, which decided that De Kerguelen, who was then scarcely thirty years old, must lose his rank and be imprisoned in definitely in the castle of Saumer He ! again the navy. M. de Tinseau recent ly introduced De Kerguelen as char acter in a novel.
 Four years ago the sailors of the bark TamariS were cast upon one of the ker guelen islands A sailor fastened tc the wing of an alba tross a tube con, | taining a roll of paper on which was | written the story of the shipwreck The bird was released, and. strange tC say. was caught by the mate of a vessel cruising in that neighborhood. An eN petition which was sent in search O1 ! the crew of the Tamaris, by following the directions on the roll of paper, hat no difficulty in finding the caves whicl l the sailors had occupied. There wer. l many traces of the castaways, but tn, men themselves had patched up rude boat and sailed off. Since ther | nothing has been heard of them These incidents were worked over and used as the foundation another novel, published in 1890, called | "Le Fond dun Ccur." In this story there also figured an: American captain
 Joseph Fuller, who commanded the l bark Francys Allyn. Fuller is, in fact. in command of an old-fashioned Amer | -ln1 c-4,., fe< the island as though they were a book, and his ship goes where no other dares l follow, and is seldom seen twice at the same anchorage. An officer of the>ex- petition which has taken possession of the islands wrote to the Illustration | that he had seen this Joseph Fuller. A vessel sailed one night into the harbor l opposite the shore where the French men were encamped, much to the lat
 ter's surprise. The officer continues as l follows:
 This morning the bark hoisted the
 American flag. On her stern was the
 name Francys Allyn. Her captain $
 name is Joseph Fuller. It was not one
 of the least of my surprises in this
 strange place to see, in flesh and blood, ] a character of novel. Fuller bears nc
 trace of the classic type of the sea dog.
 He is tall and thin; his face is sur
 rounded by handsome white beard,
 and his open, laughing eyes are hidden
 behind pair of spectacles. He looks
 more like professor of German uni
 versity than hardy sailor who has
 lived for thirty years in these danger
 ous passages"
 The Kerguelen islands lie half way
 between the cape of Good Hope and
 Australia and south of the route usually
 taken by vessels. They were visited by
 Cook in 1776, and later by Rose.-N. Y
 Post-EXpress.