INTRODUCTION. xxix 



Mr. Dobbs, a warm advocate for the probability of a 

 North Well pafTage tiirough Hudfon's Bay, in our own time, 

 once more recalled the attention of this country to that un- 

 dertaking ; and, by his a(5live zeal, and perfevering folici- 

 tation, renewed the fpirit of difcovery. But it was renewed 

 in vain. For Captain Middleton, fent out by Government in 

 1741, and Captains Smith and Moore, by a private fociety, 

 in 1746, though encouraged by an adt of Parliament pafTed 

 in the preceding year, that annexed a reward of twenty 

 thoufand pounds to the difcovery of a pafTage, returned 

 from Hudfon's Bay with reports of their proceedings, that 

 left the accomplifliment of this favourite objedl at as great 

 a diftance as ever. 



When refearches of this kind, no longer left to the foli- 

 citation of an individual, or to the fubfcriptions of private 

 adventurers, became cherifhed by the Royal attention, in 

 the prefent reign, and warmly promoted by the Minifter at 

 the head of the naval department, it was impoflible, while 

 fo much was done toward exploring the remoteft corners of 

 the Southern hemifphere, that the Northern pafTage fliould 

 not be attempted. Accordingly, while Captain Cook was 

 profecuting his voyage toward the South Pole, in 1773, 

 Lord Mulgrave failed with two fhips, to determine hoiv far na- 

 vigation "was ■praSlicahk toward the North Pole. And though 

 his Lorddiip met with the lame infuperable bar to his pro- 

 grefs, which former navigators had experienced *, the 

 hopes of opening a communication between the Pacific and 

 Atlantic Oceans, by a Northerly courfe, were not abandoned ; 



* See the hiftory of former attempts to fai] toward the North Pole, in the Intro- 

 dudtion to Lord Mulgrave's Journal. Mr. Barringtcn has colleded feveral in- 

 flances of fhips advancing to v^iy high latitudes. See his MifccUanics, p. i — 124. 



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