9236 Observations on the late Expedition of Capt. Parry , 
and the sea to the north, and even procured a map, drawn on 
parchment with charcoal, shewing the way thither. Middleton 
also, on returning to England, appears to have repeatedly boast- 
ed, that, after such a navigator as he had failed, no one else 
would attempt to follow in the same tract. 
These imprudent words and actions of Middleton, gave at 
least an additional colour to the charges against him ; and 
Dodds conceived that 4£ the demonstrations now of there being 
a passage, are as strong as they well can without actual pass- 
ing it. 1 ’’ A new expedition was therefore fitted out under Cap- 
tains Moor and Smith. These navigators, after wintering in 
Hudson's Bay, were unable to proceed up the Welcome till 
July. They spent some weeks in exploring the Wager, which 
they completely ascertained to be a river. A council was then 
called, when it was decided that it was too late in the season to 
effect any thing farther, and that their best course was to 
return to England. Ellis infers from this resolution, 6£ that 
there were some who began to be tired of so much labour and 
hardship, and who were therefore inclined to put an end to the 
voyage as soon as they could a conclusion in which we cor- 
dially agree with him. Notwithstanding this lame and impo- 
tent conclusion, it does not appear that the conductors of the 
expedition were visited with any of that storm of wrath which 
had rained thick as hail on the unfortunate Middleton. 
The narratives of this voyage published both by Ellis and 
the clerk of the California, tended to encourage the idea of a 
passage ; but after this repeated disappointment, the curiosity 
of the public again flagged. In 1775, however, a quite new 
light was thrown from a different quarter on the geography of 
America. Cook, the great circumnavigator, crowned his glo- 
ries by discovering that long sought for strait which separated 
the two Continents. He even examined some part of the coast 
beyond ; but the loss of this great man devolving the career 
on less zealous and devoted individuals, caused it to stop short. 
The observations of Cook, however, shewed the immense 
breadth of America at this latitude ; whereas hitherto it had 
been usually supposed that its northern extremity terminated in 
a point, which being passed, the navigator would find himself 
in the South Sea, and in full sail for Japan and China. It 
