INDIAN OCEAN – KERQUELEN ISLANDS. Bonne. c1780.
Terre de Kerguelen, Appellée par M. Cook, Isle de la Désolation, Par M. Bonne, Ingénieur-Hydrographe de la Marine. [and] Plan du Port Palliser dans la Terre de Kerguelen [and] Plan de Havre de Noël dans la Terre Kerguelen [and] Isles découvertes par Mr. Marion du Fresne. Four charts on one sheet. Lower left: Bonne Fil, del. Lower right: André sculp 9”h x 14”w. Very good condition. Map in French. Map by Rigobert Bonne (1727-1795). The charts were drawn by Bonne’s son. The map was engraved by Gespard André.

Published in Atlas de Toutes Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre. . . (Paris: T. G. F. Raynal, c1780).

The largest chart features the main island of Kerguelen. The group consists of the main island and some 300 smaller islands, reefs and rocks. They were discovered by the French navigator Yves de Kerguelen-Trémarec in 1772.

The group is sometimes called the Desolation Islands. On Christmas Day, 1776 Cook’s ships Resolution and Discovery anchored in Oiseau Bay, which he named Christmas Harbour (shown on the lower right chart). Cook's men discovered a bottle containing a message in Latin left by Kerguelen's men. Cook wrote in his log: “I could have very properly called the island Desolation Island to signalise its sterility, but in order not to deprive M. de Kerguelen of the glory of having discovered it, I have called it Kerguelen Land.”

MASCARENE ISLANDS. Bonne. c1780.
Cartes Générale et Particulières des Isles de France, de Bourbon et de Rodrigue. Par M. Bonne Ingénieur-Hydographe de la Marine. Upper right: 88. Lower right: Andre sculp. Lower left: Bonne fil, del. 9”h x 14”w. Very good condition. Map by Rigobert Bonne (1727-1795). The entry “Bonne fil, del.” indicates the map was drawn by Bonne’s son. The map was engraved by Gaspard Andre.

Published in Atlas de Toutes Parties Connues du Globe Terrestre… (Paris: T. G. F. Raynal, c1780).

The Mascarene Islands are a group of three islands in the Indian Ocean south of the Equator and east of Madagascar. Île de France is now called Mauritius. Île de Bourbon is now called Réunion. Île de Rodrigue is now called Rodriguez. Each of the three is shown individually. The geographical relationships of the three are shown in another insert.