for the year 1861. xxvii 



for the purpose, at a meeting of the subscribers to the Ex- 

 ploration Fund, have been chiefly devoted during the past 

 year. When I delivered my last inaugural address the ar_ 

 rangements connected with the proposed expedition, includ- 

 ing the most important of all — the appointment of a leader 

 — remained to be made. With a single exception, the 

 aspirants to this post of difficulty and danger could boast 

 little personal acquaintance with Australian exploration. 

 They had still their spurs to win. The choice of the com- 

 mittee fell on a gentleman of whom I will only on this 

 occasion say, that he has as yet done nothing to discredit 

 the confidence reposed in him, and that if courage, disin- 

 terestedness, and a firm determination to succeed in crossing 

 the desert despite all obstacles, were amongst the foremost 

 qualifications for the leadership, no better selection could 

 have been made. 



Before Mr. Burke was well out of the settled districts, 

 rumours reached us of that extraordinary journey of Mr. 

 Stuart's, from the- adjacent colony, which if it has not alto- 

 gether solved the problem of Australian geography, has at 

 any rate obliged the most learned geographers of the day to 

 confess themselves mistaken in assuming the whole interior 

 of the continent to be either an arid and inhospitable desert 

 or a vast central lake. 



To the veteran South Australian explorer it still remains 

 to complete his track from Chambers's Creek to the west- 

 ward of Lake Torrens to Stokes's Victoria river on the north 

 coast, or to Arnhem's Land, and we are all aware that he 

 started from that spot on the first day of the present year 

 with a larger party and ampler equipment, bent on still 

 claiming the honour of being the first to cross the continent. 



As regards his Victorian competitor — I will not call him 

 rival, in this glorious race, Mr. Burke, we might long since 

 have looked to hear of his arrival at the pre-concerted depot. 



