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 deg.; 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.]

[Footnote 40:  Ibid, p. 330.]

[Footnote 41:  Account of the voyage, by the clerk of the California, vol. ii. p. 273.  Mr Dobbs himself says, “That he thought the passage would be impracticable, or, at least, very difficult, in case there was one farther north than 67 deg..”—­Account of Hudson’s Bay, p. 99.—­D.]

Setting Repulse Bay, therefore, aside, within which we have no reason for believing that any inlet exists, there did not remain any part of Hudson’s Bay to be searched, but Chesterfield’s Inlet, and a small tract of coast between the latitude 62 deg., and what is called the South Point of Main, which had been left unexplored by the Dobbs and California.

But this last gleam of hope has now disappeared.  The aversion of the Hudson’s Bay Company to contribute any thing to the discovery of a north-west passage had been loudly reported by Mr Dobbs; and the public seemed to believe that the charge was well founded.  But still, in justice to them, it must be allowed, that in 1720, they had sent Messrs Knight and Barlow, in a sloop on this very discovery; but these unfortunate people were never more heard of.  Mr Scroggs, who sailed in search of them, in 1722, only brought back proofs of their shipwreck, but no fresh intelligence about a passage, which he was also to look for.  They also sent a sloop, and a shallop, to try for this discovery, in 1787; but to no purpose.  If obstructions were thrown in the way of Captain Middleton, and of the commanders of the Dobbs and California, the governor and committee of the Hudson’s Bay Company, since that time, we must acknowledge, have made amends for the narrow prejudices, of their predecessors; and we have it in our power to appeal to facts, which abundantly testify, that every thing has been done by them, that could be required by the public, toward perfecting the search for a north-west passage.

In the year 1761, Captain Christopher sailed from Fort Churchill, in the sloop Churchill; and his voyage was not quite fruitless; for he sailed up Chesterfield’s Inlet, through which a passage had, by Mr Ellis’s account of it, been so generally expected.  But when the water turned brackish, which marked that he was not in a strait, but in a river, he returned.