'SSS asr ORTH 
there-was an opening there ; and then return to England. 
They accordingly bore up on the 9th of Auguft, flood 
away to the fouthward ; -and on the 15th, after watering 
the Ihips at Brook Cobharn, Middleton let fail for Eng¬ 
land. 
On his arrival in England, Mr. Dobbs at firft appeared 
to be fatisfted that Middleton had done all that could be 
done; and that a palFage by the Welcome was impracti¬ 
cable. But loine little time after, when in Ireland, an 
anonymous letter was received by Dobbs, Hating, that 
the frozen ftrait was all a chimaera, as was every thing 
■which Middleton had written concerning that part of the 
voyage. This letter (which was afterwards dilcovered to 
have heen written by the furgeon and the captain’s clerk) 
arc life d fufpicions in the mind of Dobbs that Middleton 
had not performed his duty : on further inquiry, he was 
fatisned that this was the cafe; and, finally, accufed him 
of aCting treacheroufly towards the government, and of 
having taken a bribe of 5000I. from his old employers not 
to make any difeoveri.es. He denies the bribe, but feems 
•to admit that be might have faid tofome of the company 
before he left England, “ that he would difcover the 
north-weft pafl'age, and yet that none of thofe who were 
with him fliould be the wifer for it.” The difpute ran very 
'high ; and feveral of Middleton’s officers took part againll 
trim, fwearing that he had mifreprefented fads, and tam¬ 
pered with them to conceal the truth. Added to all 
which, Dobbs accufed him of not only having flighted 
-examining the material parts of the coaft, and the direc¬ 
tion and height of the tide, where, by all former accounts, 
there was the greateft probability of a pafi'age ; but that 
“ he even avoided the coaft, and palled great part in the 
night; and has given falfe accounts of the courfe of the 
tides ; and has made an imaginary frozen ftrait, in order 
to bring a tide of flood through it, to fupport the falfe 
fads he has laid down in his journal, and publiffied in 
his chart of the courfe of the tide, from thence to con¬ 
clude, that there is no pafl'age,” See. And he adds, “ that 
his whole conduCl, from his going to Churchill until his 
return to Ejngland, and even fince his return, makes it 
•plainly appear, that he intended to ferve the company at 
the public expenfe, and contrived every thing fo as to 
-ftifie the difeovery, and to prevent others from under¬ 
taking it for the future, fo as to fecure the favour of the 
company, and the reward he faid they promifed him be¬ 
fore he began the voyage. 
The lords of the admiralty called on captain Middleton 
to anfwer the ftrong charges preferred againll him by Mr. 
Dobbs, which he did in detail; but the impreffion of bri¬ 
bery or treachery had gone forth againll him, and it does 
- not appear that the board of admiralty was fatisfied with 
his explanation, or, at leaft, that they approved of his 
ccnduiSt, though he alks them for that approbation. On 
the contrary, it may rather be inferred, that they conli- 
dered him culpable ; and concurred in opinion with Mr. 
Dobbs, in the great probability of a north-weft pafl'age, 
which Middleton either would not, or from ignorance 
could not, difcover; for the very next year after his re¬ 
turn an a£I of parliament was palled, by which a reward 
was offered of 20,000k to the perfon or perfons, being 
fubje&s of his majefty, who fnould difcover a north-welt 
-pafl'age through Hudfon’sStraittothe weftern and northern 
ocean of America, a difeovery which is Hated in the pre¬ 
amble to be “ of great benefit and advantage to the trade 
of this kingdom.” 
Thus the public opinion in favour of the exiftence of 
a. north-weft pafl'age was not in the leaft lhaken by the 
failure of Capt. Middleton. A plan was immediately fet 
on foot for fitting out another expedition of difeovery; 
and, to defray the expenfes, it was propofed that a fub- 
feription Ihould be'opened, for railing the fum of io,oool. 
to be divided into a hundred lhares of iool. each. A 
committee was appointed, and two fmall velfels purchafed, 
the Dobbs Galley of 180 tons, and the California of 140 
tons; the command of the former was given to captain 
IP <0 L E. 
William Moor, and of the latter to captain Francis 
Smith. Mr. Ellis was-engaged to proceed on the voyage, 
as agent for the committee. Of this voyage two accounts 
have been publilhed : one by Mr. Ellis, a plain, unaffected, 
intelligible, narrative ; the other by the clerk of the Ca¬ 
lifornia, whofe name was Drage, a pedantic, difputatious, 
dogmatical, performance. The following abftlact is taken 
from the journal of Mr. Ellis. 
The two Ihips dropped down to Gravefend on the 20th 
of May, 1746. They fell in with ice on the 27th of June, 
in latitude 58. 30. to the eaftward of Cape Farewell, and 
ftiortly after with abundance of drift-wood, the origin of 
which caufes fome vague, and certainly erroneous, fpecu- 
lations in Mr. Ellis’s mind ; for he imagines it to come 
from the weft coaft of Greenland, where he ought to have 
known that no wood is produced. He alfo {peculates on 
the origin of thofe mountains of ice which float down 
Davis’s Strait; and inclines to the opinion of Hans Egede, 
which is unqueftionably the right one, of their original 
formation being on the land. 
The two Ihips paffed the Refolution and the Savage 
Illands, at the latter of which they had communication 
with the Efquimaux, whofe perfons, clothing, canoes, 
and implements, are deferibed with great accuracy. Mr. 
Ellis obferves, that the approach to large illands or fields 
of ice is always announced by the change in the tempe¬ 
rature from warm to cold, and generally by low fogs Fuf- 
pended Over it. He alfo obferves, that the refraction is 
fo great, that it is not uncommon to fee the ice thrown 
above the horizon at leaft fix degrees. On the 2d of Au¬ 
guft they doubled Cape Digges, palled Manfell’s Illands, 
and on the nth made the land on the weft fide of the 
Welcome, in latitude 64. N. From hence they proceeded 
to Marble Ifland, where they made fome obfervations on 
the tides and currents; and, finding the flood-tide come 
down the coaft from the northward, they had great hopes 
of a paffitge; but, the leafon being advanced, it was re- 
folved to bear up for Port Nelfon, as being the moil eligi¬ 
ble place for paffing the winter. They accordingly made 
fail for that place on the 17th of Auguft; but on the 
26th the Dobbs grounded on the flats, near a place called 
Five-fathom Hole, about feven' miles from Fort York. 
A beacon had been ereCted as a leading mark, which the 
governor of the Hudfon’s Bay Company caufed to be cut 
doivn, “ though he very well knew,” lays Mr. Ellis, “ who 
we were.” This was not all; he ordered them on no ac¬ 
count to come nearer the factory, without producing a> 
proper authority from the government or the Hudfon’s- 
Bay Company. The Dobbs however got off; and, re- 
gardlefs of the threats of the governor, both Ihips pro¬ 
ceeded up Hayes River, and moored in a creek about two 
miles above Fort York. The people immediately fet to 
work in digging holes in the ground to bury their wine 
and beer, and in building log-huts to proteCt them from 
the feverity of the cold, froft, and l'now; “ troublefoirte 
enough,” Fays Mr. Ellis, “ but not Feemingto merit the 
terrible reports given oF theFe winters by Fome authors 
alluding no doubt to the exaggerated ftatements of Capt. 
James. 
By the ill of November they were all comfortably 
hutted; but on the 2d, the froft was Fo Fevere that they 
could not keep the ink from freezing at the fire ; the un¬ 
buried bottled-beer was frozen folid near the fire; and 
the cold increafed to fuch a degree, that it was thought 
prudent to remove the whole of the feamen out of the 
Ihips into the log-huts. It feems, however, that the fe¬ 
verity of the cold is feldom felt above four or five days in 
a month, and generally about the full and change of the 
moon; at which times, the wind is ufually from the 
north-weft, and very tempeftuous; but at other time?, 
though there is a hard froft, Mr. Ellis fays it is pleafant 
enough ; the winds being variable and moderate, and the 
weather favourable for Ihooting or catching animals la 
traps, chiefly rabbits and partridges, which they pro¬ 
cured in vaft quantities. By conllant exercife, when the 
weather 
