At The Time When The British Government Sent Out Captain Cooke On His Last
Voyage Of Discovery, Lieutenant Pickersgill Was
Also sent out by them, to
examine the western parts of Baffin's Bay, but he never entered the bay.
Government
Were equally unfortunate in their choice of Lieutenant Young,
who was sent with the same object the following year: he reached no farther
than the seventy-second degree of latitude; and instead of sailing along
the western side of the bay, which is generally free from ice, he clung to
the eastern side, to which the ice is always firmly attached. Indeed, if
Dr. Douglas's character of him was just, he was ill fitted for the
enterprize on which he was sent; for his talents, he observes, 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.
Notwithstanding the unsuccessful issue of all these attempts to discover a
north-west passage, the existence and practicability of it still were
cherished by many geographers, who had particularly studied the subject.
Indeed, nothing had resulted from any of the numerous voyages to the
Hudson's or Baffin's Bay, which in the smallest degree rendered the
existence of such a passage unlikely. Among those scientific men who
cherished the idea of such a passage with the most enthusiasm and
confidence, and who brought to the investigation the most extensive and
minute knowledge of all that had been done, was Mr. Dalrymple, hydrographer
to the Admiralty.
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