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 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]