xl 
INTRODUCTION. 
It was natural to hope, that fomething would have been 
done in one or other, or in both thefe voyages of the Lion* 
that might have opened our views with regard to the prac¬ 
ticability of a paffage from this lide of America. Rut, un¬ 
fortunately, the execution did not anfwer the expectations 
conceived. Pickerfgill, who had acquired profeffional ex¬ 
perience when acting under Captain Cook, juftly merited 
the cenlure he received, for improper behaviour when in¬ 
truded with command in Davis’s Strait; and the talents of 
Young, as it afterward appeared, were more adapted to 
contribute to the glory of a victory, as Commander of a line 
of battle fhip, than to add to geographical difcoveries, by 
encountering mountains of ice, and exploring unknown 
coafts A 
Both Pickerfgill and Young having been ordered to pro¬ 
ceed into Baffin’s Bay; and Captain Cook being direfeed 
not to begin his fearch till he ffiould arrive in the latitude of 
65°, it may not be improper to fay fomething here of the 
reafons which weighed with thofe who planned the voyages, 
and framed the inftructions, to carry their views fo far 
Northward, as the proper fituation, where the paffage, if it 
exifted at all, was likely to be attempted with fuccefs. It 
may be afked, Why was Hudfon’s Bay neglected on our 
lide of America; and why was not Captain Cook ordered to 
begin his fearch on its oppolite fide, in much lower lati- 
* In the Philofophical Tran factions, Vol. lxviii. p. 1057, we have tire track of 
Pickerfgill’s voyage, which, probably, may be of ufe to our Greenland fhips, as it con¬ 
tains many obfervations for fixing the longitude and latitude of the coafts in Davis’s Strait. 
But it appears that he never entered Baffin’s Bay, the higheft Northern latitude to which 
he advanced being 68° 14/. As to Young’s proceedings, having failed abfolutely in 
making any difcovery, it is of lefs confequence, that no communication of his journal 
could be procured* 
tudesf 
