INTRODUCTION. xliii 



which fhips, it was hoped, would be able to find their way 

 into the Pacific Ocean, by the very opening which Middle- 

 ton's voyage had pointed out, and which he was believed to 

 have raifreprefented. 



This renovation of hope only produced frefli difappoint- 

 ment. For it is well known, that the voyage of the Dobbs 

 and California, inftead of confuting, flrongly confirmed all 

 that Middleton had afTerted, The fuppofed Strait was found 

 to be nothing more than a frelh water river, and its utmoft 

 Weftern navigable boundaries were now afcertained, by ac- 

 curate examination. But though Wager's Strait had thus 

 difappointed our hopes, as had alfo done Rankin's Inlet, 

 which v^ras now found to be a clofe Bay ; and though 

 other arguments, founded on the fuppofed courfe of the 

 tides in tludfon's Bay, appeared to be groundlefsj fuch is our 

 attachment to an opinion once adopted, that, even after the 

 unfuccefsful iffue of the voyage of the Dobbs and California, 

 a paflage through fomc other place in that Bay was, by 

 many, confidered as attainable ; and, particularly, Cheflcr- 

 field's (formerly called Bowden's) hilet, lying between lati- 

 tude 63° and 64°, fucceeded Wager's Strait, in the fanguine 

 expectations of thofe who remained unconvinced by former 

 difappointments. Mr. Ellis, who was on board the fhips, 

 atid who wrote the hiftory of the voyage, holds up this as 

 one of the places v,^here the pafTage may be fought for, 

 upon ver^L rational grounds, atid tvith 'very good effecfs *. He alfo 

 mentions Repulfe Bay, nearly in latitude 6f ; but as to this 

 he fpeaks kfs confidently ; only faying, that by an attempt 

 tliere, we might probably approach nearer to the difcovery f. 

 He had good reafon for thus guarding his expreliion; for 



« Ellis's Voyage, -p. 328. t Ibid. p. 330. 



f 2 the 



