76 
DESPATCHES TO THE 
master of the cutter to sail for Adelaide, and to 
report what he had seen at the salt inlets in the 
east side of Spencer’s Gulf, which I had directed 
him to examine in the boats whilst I was absent 
exploring to the north. His reply was, that there 
was water enough for a ship to lie within one mile 
of the shore, that there was a tolerable landing place, 
but that he had found no fresh water. The men 
were employed during the day making a new tar- 
paulin from the canvas sent up in the Waterwitch. 
The following is a copy of the Report sent to the 
Governor, and to the Chairman of the Committee 
for promoting the expedition. 
“ Depot , near Mount Arden , 
July 22nd, 1840. 
“ Sir, — I have the honour to acquaint you for the informa- 
tion of His Excellency the Governor, and of the colonists inter- 
ested in the northern expedition, with the progress made up to 
the present date. 
“ I arrived here with my party all well, on the 3rd July 
instant, and on the 6th I proceeded, accompanied by one of my 
native boys, on horseback, to reconnoitre Lake Torrens and the 
country to the north of the depot, leaving the party in camp to 
rest the horses and enable the overseer to get up, from the head 
of Spencer’s Gulf, the supplies kindly sent by His Excellency 
the Governor in the W atenuitch — her arrival having been sig- 
nalised the evening previous to my leaving. I arrived on the 
shores of Lake Torrens the third day after leaving the depot, 
and have ascertained that it is a basin of considerable magnitude, 
extending certainly over a space varying in width from 15 to 20 
miles, and with a length of from 40 to 50, from its southern 
extremity, to the most northerly part of it, visible from a high 
