284 DISCOVERIES OF 1742. 



four or five leagues, and five, six, and seven, in 

 the broadest, almost full of large and small islands, 

 ^nd in length about sixteen or eighteen leagues ; 

 to the westward it was full of ice, not broken up, 

 but fast in every part to the shoals and islands in 

 the strait. Finding no hope in that direction, 

 and the ice not being broken up, it was resolved 

 in council to try the other side of the Welcome, 

 from Cape Dobbs to Brook-Cobham, to know if 

 there was an opening there, and then return to 

 England. 



They accordingly bore up on the 9th August, 

 stood away to the southward, and on the 15th, 

 after watering the ships at Brook-Cobham, Mid- 

 dleton set sail for England. On his arrival in 

 England, ]\Ir. Dobbs at first appeared to be satisfied 

 that Middleton had done all that could be done, 

 and that a passage by the Welcome was im- 

 practicable. But some little time after, when in 

 Ireland, an anonymous letter was received by 

 Dobbs, stating, that the frozen strait was all a 

 chimasra, as was every thing which Middleton 

 had written concerning that part of the voyage. 

 This letter (which was afterwards discovered to 

 have been written by the Surgeon and the Cap- 

 tain's Clerk) aroused suspicions in the mind of 

 Dobbs that Middleton had not performed his 

 duty : on further inquiry, he was satisfied that 

 this was the case ; and finally accused him of 

 acting treacherously towards the government, and 



