It was natural to hope, that something would have been done in one or other, or in both these voyages of the Lion, that might have opened our views with regard to the practicability of a passage from this side of America. But, unfortunately, the execution did not answer the expectations conceived. Pickersgill, who had acquired professional experience when acting under Captain Cook, justly merited the censure he received, for improper behaviour when intrusted 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-ship, than to add to geographical discoveries, by encountering mountains of ice, and exploring unknown coasts.[37]
[Footnote 37: In the Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxviii. p, 1057, we have the track of Pickersgill's voyage, which, probably, may be of use to our Greenland ships, as it contains many observations for fixing the longitude and latitude of the coasts in Davis's Strait. But it appears that he never entered Baffin's Bay, the highest northern latitude to which he advanced being 68° 14'. As to Young's proceedings, having failed absolutely in making any discovery, it is of less consequence, that no communication of his journal could be procured.--D.]
Both Pickersgill and Young having been ordered to proceed into Baffin's Bay; and Captain Cook being directed not to begin his search till he should arrive in the latitude of 65°, it may not be improper to say something here of the reasons which weighed with those who planned the voyages, and framed the instructions, to carry their views so far northward, as the proper situation, where the passage, if it existed at all, was likely to be attempted with success. It may be asked, why was Hudson's Bay neglected on our side of America; and why was not Captain Cook ordered to begin his search on its opposite side, in much lower latitudes? particularly, why not explore the strait leading into the western sea of John de Fuca, between the latitudes of 47° and 48°; the Archipelago of St Lazarus of Admiral de Fonte, between 50° and 55°; and the rivers and lakes through which he found a passage north-eastward, till he met with a ship from Boston?
As to the pretended discoveries of de Fuca, the Greek pilot, or of de Fonte, the Spanish admiral, though they have sometimes found their way into fictitious maps, or have been warmly contended for by the espousers of fanciful systems, to have directed Captain Cook to spend any time in tracing them, would have been as wise a measure as if he had been directed to trace the situation of Lilliput or Brobdignag. The latter are, indeed, confessedly, mere objects of imagination; and the former, destitute of any sufficient external evidence, bear so many striking marks of internal absurdity, as warrant our pronouncing them to be the fabric of imposture. Captain Cook's instructions were founded on an accurate knowledge of what had been already done, and of what still remained to do; and this knowledge pointed out the inutility of beginning his search for a passage till his arrival in the latitude of 65°. Of this every fair and capable enquirer will be abundantly convinced, by an attention to the following particulars:
Middleton, who commanded the expedition in 1741 and 1742, into Hudson's Bay, had proceeded farther north than any of his predecessors in that navigation. But though, from his former acquaintance with that bay, to which he had frequently sailed in the service of the company, he had entertained hopes of finding out a passage through it into the Pacific Ocean, the observations which he was now enabled to make, induced him to change his opinion; and, on his return to England, he made an unfavourable report. Mr Dobbs, the patron of the enterprise, did not acquiesce in this; and, fortified in his original idea of the practicability of the passage, by the testimony of some of Middleton's officers, he appealed to the public, accusing him of having misrepresented facts, and of having, from interested motives, in concert with the Hudson's Bay Company, decided against the practicability of the passage, though the discoveries of his own voyage had put it within his reach.
He had, between the latitude of 65° and 66°, found a very considerable inlet running westward, into which he entered with his ships; and, "after repeated trials of the tides, and endeavours to discover the nature and course of the opening, for three weeks successively, he found the flood constantly to come from the eastward, and that it was a large river he had got into," to which he gave the name of Wager River."[38]
[Footnote 38: See the Abstract of his Journal, published by Mr Dobbs.]
The accuracy, or rather the fidelity, of this report, was denied by Mr Dobbs, who contended that this opening is a strait, and not a fresh-water river; and that Middleton, if he had examined it properly, would have found a passage through it to the western American Ocean. The failure of this voyage, therefore, only served to furnish our zealous advocate for the discovery, with new arguments for attempting it once more; and he had the good fortune, after getting the reward of twenty thousand pounds established by act of parliament, to prevail upon a society of gentlemen and merchants to fit out the Dobbs and California; which ships, it was hoped, would be able to find their way into the Pacific Ocean, by the very opening which Middleton's Voyage had pointed out, and which he was believed to have misrepresented.
This renovation of hope only produced fresh disappointment For it is well known, that the voyage of the Dobbs and California, instead of confuting, strongly confirmed all that Middleton had asserted. The supposed strait was found to be nothing more than a fresh-water river, and its utmost western navigable boundaries were now ascertained, by accurate examination. But though Wager's Strait had thus disappointed our hopes, as had also done Rankin's Inlet, which was now found to be a close bay; and though other arguments, founded on the supposed course of the tides in Hudson's Bay, appeared to be groundless, such is our attachment to an opinion once adopted, that, even after the unsuccessful issue of the voyage of the Dobbs and California, a passage through some other place in that bay was, by many, considered as attainable; and, particularly, Chesterfield's (formerly: called Bowden's) Inlet, lying between latitude 65° and 64°, succeeded Wager's Strait, in the sanguine expectations of those who remained unconvinced by former disappointments. Mr Ellis, who was on board the Dobbs, and who wrote the history of the voyage, holds up this, as one of the places where the passage may be sought for, upon very rational grounds, and with very good effects.[39] He also mentions Repulse Bay, nearly in latitude 67°; but as to this he speaks less confidently; only saying, that by an attempt there, we might probably approach nearer to the discovery.[40] He had good reason for thus guarding his expression; for the committee, who directed this voyage, admitting the impracticability of effecting a passage at Repulse Bay, had refused allowing the ships to go into it, being satisfied as to that place.[41]
[Footnote 39: Ellis's Voyage, p. 328.]