raphers of all ages."[31]

[Footnote 31: Cook's second Voyage.]

Thus far, therefore, the voyages to disclose new tracks of navigation,
and to reform old defects in geography, appear to have been prosecuted
with a satisfactory share of success. A perusal of the foregoing summary
of what had been done, will enable every one to judge what was still
wanting to complete the great plan of discovery. The southern hemisphere
had, indeed, been repeatedly visited, and its utmost accessible
extremities been surveyed. But much uncertainty, and, of course, great
variety of opinion, subsisted, as to the navigable extremities of our
own hemisphere; particularly as to the existence, or, at least, as to
the practicability of a northern passage between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, either by sailing eastward, round Asia, or westward,
round North America.

It was obvious, that if such a passage could be effected, voyages to
Japan and China, and, indeed, to the East Indies in general, would be
much shortened; and consequently become more profitable, than by making
the tedious circuit of the Cape of Good Hope. Accordingly, it became a
favourite object of the English to effectuate this, above two centuries
ago; and (to say nothing of Cabot's original attempt, in 1497, which
ended in the discovery of Newfoundland and the Labradore coast) from
Frobisher's first voyage to find a western passage, in 1576, to those of
James and of Fox, in 1631, repeated trials had been made by our
enterprising adventurers. But though farther knowledge of the northern
extent of America was obtained in the course of these voyages, by the
discovery of Hudson's and Baffin's Bays, the wished-for passage, on that
side, into the Pacific Ocean, was still unattained. Our countrymen, and
the Dutch, were equally unsuccessful, in various attempts, to find this
passage in an eastern direction. Wood's failure, in 1676, seems to have
closed the long list of unfortunate northern expeditions in that
century; and the discovery, if not absolutely despaired of, by having
been so often missed, ceased, for many years, to be sought for.

Mr Dobbs, a warm advocate for the probability of a north-west passage
through Hudson's Bay, in our own time, once more recalled the attention
of this country to that undertaking; and, by his active zeal, and
persevering solicitation, renewed the spirit of discovery. But it was
renewed in vain. For Captain Middleton, sent out by government in 174