Ixxiv MiiL'T. Lawson’s expedition. 
forth a more general spirit of enterprise and 
exertion among the settlers ; and Mr. Oxley 
makes honorable mention of the perseverance 
and resolution with which Lieut. Lawson, ol the 
104th regiment, accompanied by Messrs. Blax- 
land and Wentworth, conducted an expedition 
into the Blue Mountains. Their efibrts were 
successful : and the objects of their enterprise 
would have been completely, attained, but for 
the failure of their provisions at a moment when 
their view of the distant interior was such as 
to convince them that they had overcome the 
most formidable obstacles to their advance, and 
that in their further progress few impediments 
would have presented themselves. 
The success of this undertaking induced Go- 
vernor Macquarie to further the prosecution of 
inland discovery, and of attempts to ascertain 
the nature of the country of which Mr. Lawson 
only obtained a glimpse. An expedition was 
accordingly dispatched under Mr. Evans, the 
Deputy Surveyor-General, to follow the route 
taken by the former one, and to penetrate as far 
as practicable into the western interior. The 
result was the discovery of the Macquarie river, 
and of Bathurst Plains. The report of Mr. 
