4 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



formed its most essential part. I resumed my task with renewed 

 vigour, and with a wider scope, and Mr. Dick, up to the date of 

 his death, assisted me in many ways through his local and personal 

 knowledge, happily of more recent date than mine. I am grateful 

 to his memory, and am conscious that he was, in a sense, " the 

 only begetter of these ensuing lines." 



Between 1880 and 1913, a great deal of charting of the interior 

 had been accomplished by the Departments of Lands and Mines, 

 although even now that work is incomplete. The new lines gave 

 me, when I was recharting the lost map, an opportunity of 

 correcting my sketching to correspond with actual surveys. 



The first lesson to force itself upon me was that my estimates 

 of distances covered had been influenced by fatigue or difficulties 

 on the one hand (leading to over-estimation) or by good-going 

 and good-feeding for the horses on the other (leading to under- 

 estimation). 



The second lesson was that, even in the direction of my 

 course, I had in many instances strayed to the right or left, as a 

 ship may steer a definite course and yet make leeway owing to the 

 pressure of forces incorrectly estimated, or even not recognised. 

 In short, the personal equation had to be introduced and allowed 

 for before I could hope to reconcile my supposed with my actual 

 position on any given date. 



Long before I had finished the revision of my own narrative, 

 it had become evident that its significance could not be fully 

 understood without a critical study of the diaries of explorers 

 who had gone before me and whose paths I had crossed from time 

 to time. This led me back from Mulligan to Leichhardt, and as 

 one by one the writings of honoured pioneers came under my 

 review, I subjected them to the tests already applied to my own, 

 and to the best of my ability substituted where the writers were 

 for where they thought they were, and made the necessary allow- 

 ances and corrections. Then it seemed that the story might as 

 well be continued to the present date by the addition of the 

 developments which have taken place since 1880 through the 

 instrumentality of surveyors, explorers and prospectors. Some 

 of the actors are, happily, still alive, and these have rendered 

 material assistance by the contribution of original matter. Among 

 these are Webb, Bradford, Paterson and Embley. To the last- 

 named gentleman, especially, I am indebted for assistance rendered 

 doubly valuable by his prolonged residence in the Peninsula, and 

 which, in some parts of the work, almost amounted to collaboration. 



While dealing with land explorers it was borne in upon me 

 that they owed some of their difficulties and many of their errors 

 to an imperfect comprehension of the work of earlier maritime 

 explorers. They were not, indeed, to be blamed for this, as in 

 few instances could they have perused the narratives or seen the 



