LIBRARY OF 

 AUSTRALIAN TRAVELS, &c. 



PUBLISHED BY T. AND W. BOONE, 



29, NEW BOND STREET. 



^ Now ready, in 2 vols. 8vo. with numerous Plates, some coloured, 



NARRATIVE OF AN EXPEDITION 



INTO 



CHrrTItAI. il.USTB,iLI.IA, 



BY ORDER OF HER MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT, 



DoRiNG THE Years 1844, 5, 6, 



With ITotices of the Colony of South Australia. 



BY CAPTAIN CHARLES STURT, 



Late 39th Regt. 



Colonial TaEAsnRER, and 



AniHOR OP " Two Expeditions into Southern Australia." 



The character of the far interior of Australia had long been a most interesting 

 geographical problem, many imagining the centre to be occupied by a large inland 

 sea, others conjecturing that it was an arid desert, which opinion was further 

 strengthened by Mr. Eyre's unsuccessful endeavour to penetrate higher than the 29th 

 degree of latitude in his expedition during the years 1840 and 1. Captain Sturt, so 

 appropriately denominated the " Father of Australian Discovery," in consequence of 

 being the first traveller to explore the rivers Murray, Murrumbidgee, Began, and 

 Castlereagh, volunteered lo conduct a party into the interior to determine this impor- 

 tant question. With the approbation of Lord Stanley, the Colonial Minister, he 

 accordingly started in the year 1844, and, after a series of unparalleled privations, 

 succeeded in reaching the centre of the Continent in a line direct north of Adelaide. 

 The journal of this perilous Expedition gives an account of the remarkable Stony 

 Desert, the bed of Lake Torrens, descriptions of the Natives and their villages, and 

 the discovery of several small rivers, &c. ; added to which, his observations and col- 

 lections on the Natural History have since been arranged by R. Brown, Esq. and 

 J. Gould, Esq. in the form of an Appendix. 



'' The details of this romantic and perilous Expedition are replete with interest. 

 From the numerous and lengthened expeditions he has undertaken, and the general 

 intelligence and scientific skill he brings to bear upon the question, we know of no 

 recent traveller in A ustralia whose opinions are entitled to more weight. — The portion 

 of the work which refers to the Colony of South Australia is particularly valuable to 

 intending emigrants." — Morning Herald. 



