May 26, 1856.] AUSTRALIA. ]7l 



M. Delaporte has published an account of his journey in the 

 country of the Araucanians. 



Benjamin Vicuna Mackenna has reported upon the agriculture of 

 Chile and upon European migration to that country. 



M. Isambert and M. de Angelis, and Lieut. Maury, u.s.N., have 

 written upon the free navigation of the Amazon. 



AUSTEALIA. 



By far the most important information we have had communicated 

 to us with regard to this country is the progress which has been made 

 by the North Australian Expedition under Mr. Augustus Gregory. 



From this enterprising explorer, whose exploits in Western Aus- 

 tralia are well known, by a letter communicated through the Colonial 

 Office, we learn that the Expedition left Moreton Island on 13th 

 September, 1855, in the ship 'Monarch' and the 'Tom Tough' 

 schooner, and after nearly encountering shipwreck at the entrance 

 of Port Patterson, was landed at Point Pearce. 



At the time of the last despatch the stock had suffered from the 

 voyage, and the horses were in a weak condition ; but the Expe- 

 dition was in all other respects in an efficient state, and the 

 officers and men were all in good health and full of ardour. The 

 horses having been landed from the ship, were to proceed round 

 the head of the Fitzmaurice, making their way to the Kangaroo 

 Point in Victoria Kiver, whence the Expedition would take its 

 final departure for the interior. No natives had been seen, but it 

 was evident by many fires and other traces that they were numerous 

 on that part of the coast. Through Sir Eoderick Murchison some 

 information has been received from Mr. Wilson, the geologist to 

 the Expedition ; and Mr. Baines, the artist, has illustrated the 

 country about Moreton Bay by the sketches which have been laid 

 on our table. 



The importance of this Expedition in opening out to our know- 

 ledge the interior of the northern portion of Australia, in bringing 

 us acquainted with the physical and geographical features of the 

 country, by which we may hope to forward the progress of that 

 most important and desirable object, the settlement of this portion 

 of the continent; the determination of the watersheds of those 

 important rivers, the Victoria and Albert, supposed to have their 

 rise in an extensive range of mountains in the locality to be explored, 

 and of the facilities or otherwise of connecting Carpentaria with 



