456 SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON'S ADDRESS., [May 25, 1857. 



know that no valuable amount of gold is to be found tbere, either 

 in the loose debris or in the solid rocks. Independently, however, 

 of gold, the northern progress of civilization, as far as skill and 

 energy can aid it, will assuredly be secured upon a solid basis by 

 the present enlightened Governor-General Sir W. Denison. 



The exploration of that eastern Cordillera, so long ago undertaken 

 by our enterprising associate Count Strzelecki, to which I specially 

 directed your attention in 1844, and which has since been carried 

 further out by Leichhardt, Kennedy, and Mitchell, has recently had 

 its noiihem and north-western offsets brought more definitely into 

 notice by Gregoiy and his associates.* The advanced guard of the 

 colonists has now even crept on so far beyond Moreton Bay, as to 

 be already within abgut 560 miles of the head of the Gulf of Carpen- 

 taria ; and judging from the fertile nature of most of the unoccupied 

 lands, the period is doubtless not very distant when our country- 

 men will reach that great haven, which, penetrating for 500 miles 

 into the continent, will surely, in future ages, be crowded with ships 

 carrying on a great commercial intercourse between Australia and 

 the Eastern Archipelago, Hindostan, and China. 



Looking to that future, and even to our present interests, it was 

 a subject of regret to many of us, that it should have been thought 

 expedient to discontinue the occupation of Port Essington, and to 

 abandon all intention of holding any other station along the north- 

 em coast of this vast continent. Unable now to enter upon a 

 consideration of what bay of the eastern side of the Gulf of Car- 

 pentaria may be selected as an "entrepot," I have little doubt 

 that the time will soon come, when all minor difficulties will disap- 

 pear before the energy of British colonists, in their endeavours to 

 connect their Australian possessions with the rich marts of the 

 Eastern hemisphere. 



In treating this subject there is, however, another point 

 which seems to me of such incalculable national importance, that I 

 must beg your permission to say a few words upon it. If the idea 

 of forming settlements through convict labour is to be discarded as 

 respects the Gulf of Carpentaria, because the free population of 

 New South Wales is advancing towards that great haven, then let 

 us turn to that noble bay upon the north coast, of which Cam- 

 bridge Gulf forms the western side, and whose eastern side receives 

 the waters of the Victoria River. First explored by Philip King in 



* Award of the Gold Medals, ante. No auriferous tract appears to have been 

 discovered by Mr. Gregory's party. 



