PREFACE 



TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



The following Journals were written at the close of many 

 a laborious day, when the energies both of mind and body 

 were almost exhausted by long continued toil. The author 

 trusts that this circumstance will account for, and palliate, 

 some of the defects which may be discovered in his volumes. 

 Conscious as he is of the deficiencies of his work, he never- 

 theless hopes that the reader will not pronounce it to be 

 wholly devoid of interest. Though Australia calls up no 

 historical recollections, no classical associations of ideas, it 

 has other, and not less valid titles to our attention. It is a 

 new and vast country, over the largest portion of which a veil 

 of mystery still hangs ; many of its productions vary in a 

 singular manner, from those in other parts of the world ; 

 within the memory of man one British colony has risen there, 

 in spite of adverse circumstances, to a high degree of prospe- 

 rity ; others have been founded, which promise to be equally 

 successful ; and it seems impossible to doubt that, at no 

 distant period, the whole territory will be inhabited by a 

 powerful people, speaking the English language, diffusing 

 around them English civilization and arts, and exercising a 

 predominant influence ever eastern Asia, and the numerous 

 and extensive islands in that quarter of the globe. 



In his expeditions into the interior of Australia, the author 

 was led cheerfully on, by an eager curiosity to examine a 

 country Avhich is yet in the same state as when it was formed 

 by its Maker. With respect to the narrative of those expe- 

 ditions, the sole merit which he claims is that of having 

 faithfully described what he attentively observed ; neither 



