Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
But it would seem that at least a dozen members of his expedi-
tion did not share their leader's ardent national pride.
Bougainville claimed that his decision to proceed via the Straits
was taken on purely professional grounds. Not only did he consider
his ships to be unequal to rounding the Horn; he actually professed
to believe that it was safer to take the open sea route during the
southern winter when there is less than eight hours of daylight.
Since he was obliged to travel in summer, he insisted that the proper
course was by way of Magellan's Straits. Byron concurred with this
judgement up to a point. He thought December and January the
best months for passing through the Straits but he believed this
course
always
better than the alternative. 'I would prefer it twenty
seems little doubt that Bougainville felt the same basic fear of the
'wild Horn's hate'. His strange opinion runs so completely counter
to the experience of earlier expeditions that it is difficult to avoid
the conclusion that Bougainville was seeking to excuse rather than
explain his actions. For example, Anson's difficulties in this region
had arisen largely because he had delayed his assault on the waters
of the Horn to March and April when the winter storms were at
their worst. Bougainville, fully familiar with such awful precedents,
simply took the safest course - and would probably have done so
whatever time of year he reached Cape Virgins. No modern sailor
would criticise him for such a decision but there were, at that time,
many men in England and not a few in France, who questioned his
bravery and insisted that the first French circumnavigation was not
to be compared with the courageous exploits of Anson, Schouten and
other great mariners. Bougainville was familiar with the eastern end
of the Straits: he had made previous voyages there collecting tim-
ber for his Falklands colony. The devil he partially knew must have
seemed infinitely preferable to the notorious devil he did not.
