Preface.
MY book:―"The Exploration of Australia, from its first discovery till the year 1846," is already before the public; and has been received with more favour than I could have hoped for, both in the United Kingdom and the Colonies. The subject being as wide as the great Island Continent itself, I was compelled to divide my work into two periods, and in the present Volume I have endeavoured to give a true account of the Exploratory Enterprises which have been undertaken from the date of Dr. Ludwig Leichardt's disastrous journey, till the unfortunately abandoned Elder Expedition, conducted by Mr. David Lindsay. So much for Exploration in the past. The routes of the various Explorers of bygone days are laid down in their maps and charts; and the results are in the hands of the various Geographical Societies. In some cases, it will be seen that the benefits gained by the heroic exertions of the men who risked―and in many cases laid down―their lives, in unfolding the mysteries of the Australian Continent, are sadly disproportioned to the courage
