LATE ALLAN CUNTSINGHAM, ESQ. 311 



fit adequate to this journey, on which I shall be happy to pro- 

 ceed on or about Monday, the 26th of March next. 

 " I have the honour to be, 

 "Your Excellency's most obedient humble servant, 



" Allan Cunningham. 

 "IdthFeb., 1827." 

 "His Excellency, Lieut.-General Darling." 



This proposal was accepted, and on the 30th of April Mr 

 Cunningham took his departure from Segenhoe,* (on an 

 upper branch of Hunter's River,) with six men, and eleven 

 heavily laden horses, pursuing his journey northerly, along 

 the eastern skirts of Liverpool Plains. On the 11th of May 

 he crossed Mr Oxley's track easterly, towards Port Macquarie, 

 in 1818, and from that point the labours of the expedition 

 commenced, on ground previously untrodden by civilized 

 man. On the l9th of May they entered a valley in lat. 30^ 

 S., which was named Stoddart's Valley, (after IMr Cunning- 

 ham's esteemed friend, lieutenant, now lieutenant-colonel 

 Stoddartj) and shortly after came upon the Peel River, 

 and were enabled to ford it at a part where the breadth was 

 diminished to fifty yards. On the 25th they had reached lat. 

 29^ 10' S., and there found a termination on the west to the 

 hilly country they had lately traversed. " A level open inte- 

 rior, of vast expanse, bounded on the north and north-west 

 by a distant horizon, broke suddenly on our view. At 

 north-west, more particularly, it was evident to all of us that 

 the country had a most decided dip, and on that bearing the 

 line of sight extended over a great extent of densely wooded 

 or brushed land, the monotonous aspect of which was here 

 and there relieved by a brown patch of plain ; of these some 

 Were so remote as to appear a mere speck on the ocean of 

 land before us, on which the eye sought anxiously for a rising 



* The packhorses and their leaders had been sent overland, unladen, to 

 this station, the whole of the baggage of the expedition having been for- 

 warded by sea to Newcastle, and thence taken up the Hunter in boats, to 

 Segenhoe, Mr Cunningham accompanying it. 



