i 82 
SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 
It is impossible to conceive that such a body of land, as large as all Europe, 
does not j)roduce vast rivers capable of being navigated into the heart of the 
interior; or that, if properly investigated, such a country, situated in a most 
fruitful climate, should not produce some native raw material of importance to 
such a manufacturing country as England is. 
Mr. Mungo Park, lately returned from a journey in Africa, where he penetrated 
farther into the inland than any European before has done, by several hundred 
miles, and discovered an immense navigable river running westward, which offers 
the means of penetrating into the centre of that vast continent .... 
offers himself as a volunteer to be employed in exploring the interior of New 
Holland, by its rivers or otherwise, as may, in the event, be found most expedient. 
He is very moderate in his terms ; he will be contented with 10s. a day and his 
rations, and happy if his pay is settled at l‘2s. The amount of his outfit for 
instruments, arms, presents, &c., will not, I think, exceed £100. 
But he was not to be one of the heroes of Australian exploration, 
and shortly afterwards he was drowned in a West African river. 
It was to Banks that Governor Hunter sent the journals of the 
expedition* into the interior led by Wilson in 1798. 
* Hist. Rec.f iii, 819. 
