Welcome to the Forum!
We've discussed this kit pretty extensively here. (The longest thread is this one: /forums/t/68138.aspx?PageIndex=1 . It contains a considerable amount of contentious argument from quite a few people, including me. Please take a look at it, read all sides of the arguments, and come to your own conclusions.)
One point on which, I think, everybody who's tackled that kit can agree: the instructions are garbage. The original French ones are far from ideal, and the English "translation" is worse. Caveat: the kit has been released quite a few times over the years, and it's possible that a new edition of the English "instructions" has been inserted at some time. The kit I built was one of the first (back in the seventies), and the English versions I've seen since then have all been identical to the one I got. But maybe there's a better one out there somewhere.
There are two basic problems.
One - the people who designed the kit didn't understand rigging (among numerous other aspects of ship construction). The solution to that problem, fortunately, is pretty simple and economical. Get hold of a copy of R.C. Anderson's book, The Rigging of Ships in the Days of the Spritsail Topmast, 1600-1720. (It's available in cheap paperback reprint form from Dover Books. Used copies can be found on the web for less than $10.00.) My strong recommendation: throw out the Heller rigging instructions and let Dr. Anderson be your guide.
Two - the English "translation" apparently was written by somebody who (a) didn't understand French, and (b) hadn't attempted to build the model. The document really isn't a translation per se; the "author" apparently just looked at the pictures and jotted down some notes, in English, on what he saw. (The first clue: he thought "le mat de misaine" was the mizzen mast. It isn't. It's the fore mast. The mizzen mast is "le mat d'artimon.") It's highly unlikely that this document will provide the English-speaking modeler with anything he can't figure out for himself on the basis of the diagrams.
As I said earlier, it's possible that, sometime in this kit's long and convoluted history, Heller got some competent person to write a genuine English-language instruction manual for it. I certainly hope so; for a manufacturer to include a piece of garbage like the version that came with mine in a kit that costs that much money is downright scandalous.
I fear I haven't helped mdpape much - if at all - but maybe I've saved him a wild goose chase. Believe me, those "English instructions" aren't worth the effort to seek them out.
Good luck with your model, though.