360 AUSTRALIA : 



future overland communication with the northern settlements 

 of the eastern coast. The energy, which has done so much 

 for us in this region of the globe, will doubtless in the end 

 accomplish the object to which we allude. 



The voyage of Captain Blackwood, narrated in the volumes 

 before us, was undertaken by direction of the Board of Ad- 

 miralty, and extended over a period of more than four years ; 

 great part of this time occupied in a laborious, and often- 

 times dangerous survey of one of the most singular channels 

 of navigation in the world. The quarter to which his ope- 

 rations were directed is the north-east coast of New Holland, 

 of which the line of travel previously pursued by Leichardt 

 may be said to form the interior chord. These two expeditions 

 therefore have been in some sort supplemental to each other, 

 and to the survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria by Captain 

 Stokes in the years immediately preceding. But the definite 

 object assigned to Captain Blackwood was the complete 

 survey of the channel or channels just mentioned, through 

 which a hardy and prosperous traffic is already beginning to 

 flow, and which are likely hereafter to become one of the 

 great passages for the commerce of the Indian Archipelago 

 and Southern hemisphere. We infer from these volumes, as 

 well as from other information which has reached us, that 

 this officer fulfilled well the arduous duties intrusted to him ; 

 proving himself a worthy successor of Flinders, Bligh, King, 

 Stokes, and other navigators who have laboured in the work 

 of discovery on the same shores. 



It will be seen from the title of the volumes that Captain 

 Blackwood is not the historian of his own voyages. He 

 waived his right of publication in favour of Mr. Jukes, natu- 

 ralist to the expedition, who in a modest prefatory letter ac- 

 knowledges this kindness and apologises for the deficiencies 

 of his work. In an Appendix to the second volume we find 



