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 1741, and Captains Smith and Moore, by a private society, in 1746, though encouraged by an act of parliament passed in the preceding year, that annexed a reward of twenty thousand pounds to the discovery of a passage, returned from Hudson’s Bay with reports of their proceedings, that left the accomplishment of this favourite object at as great a distance as ever.

When researches of this kind, no longer left to the solicitation of an individual, or to the subscriptions of private adventurers, became cherished by the royal attention, in the present reign, and warmly promoted by the minister at the head of the naval department, it was impossible, while so much was done toward exploring the remotest corners of the southern hemisphere, that the northern passage should not be attempted.  Accordingly, while Captain Cook was prosecuting his voyage toward the South Pole in 1773, Lord Mulgrave sailed with two ships, to determine how far navigation was practicable toward the North Pole.  And though his lordship met with the same insuperable bar to his progress which former navigators had experienced, the hopes of opening a communication between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans by a northerly course, were not abandoned; and a voyage for that purpose was ordered to be undertaken.[32]

[Footnote 32:  Dr Douglas refers to the introduction to Lord Mulgrave’s Journal for a history of former attempts to sail toward the North Pole; and to Barrington’s Miscellanies for several instances of ships reaching very high north latitudes.—­E.]

The operations proposed to be pursued were so new, so extensive, and so various, that the skill and experience of Captain Cook, it was thought, would be requisite to conduct them.  Without being liable to any charge of want of zeal for the public service, he might have passed the rest of his days in the command to which he had been appointed in Greenwich Hospital, there to enjoy the fame he had dearly earned in two circumnavigations of the world.  But he cheerfully relinquished this honourable station at home; and, happy that the Earl of Sandwich had not cast his eye upon any other commander, engaged in the conduct of the expedition, the history of which is now given, an expedition that would expose him to the toils and perils of a third circumnavigation, by a track hitherto unattempted.[33] Every former navigator round the globe had made his passage home to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope; the arduous task was now assigned to Captain Cook of attempting it, by reaching the high northern latitudes between Asia and America.  So that the usual plan of discovery