24 
REFLECTIONS. 
Those only who have been placed in similar 
circumstances can at all appreciate the feelings which 
they call forth. The hopes, fears, and anxieties of the 
leader of an exploring party, must be felt to be under- 
stood, when he is about to commence an undertaking 
which must be one of difficulty and danger, and 
which may be of doubtful and even fatal result. 
The toil, care, and anxiety devolving upon him 
are of no ordinary character ; everyday removes him 
further from the pale of civilization and from aid or 
assistance of any kind — whilst each day too dimi- 
nishes the strength of his party and the means at his 
command, and thus renders him less able to provide 
against or cope with the difficulties that may beset 
him. A single false step, the least error of j udgment, 
or the slightest act of indiscretion might plunge 
the expedition into inextricable difficulty or danger, 
or might defeat altogether the object in view. 
Great indeed was the responsibility I had undertaken 
- — and most fully did I feel sensible of the many and 
anxious duties that devolved upon me. The import- 
ance and interest attached to the solution of the 
geographical problem connected with the interior of 
Australia, would, I well knew, engage the observation 
of the scientific world. If I were successful, the 
accomplishment of what I had undertaken would 
more than repay me in gratification for the toil and 
hazard of the enterprise- — but if otherwise I could 
not help feeling that, however far the few friends who 
knew me might give me credit for exertion or perse- 
verance, the world at large would be apt to reason 
