CAPTAIN STURT’S LECTURE, 
9 
lives to the pestilence of that climate or to the ferocity of its 
inhabitants ? — And where shall we look for the patient and per- 
severing endurance of Parry, of Franklin, and of Back, in the 
northern regions of eternal snow ? If, ladies and gentlemen, 
fame were to wreathe a crown to the memory of such men, there 
would not he a leaf in it without a name. The region of dis- 
covery was long open to the ambitious, but the energy and per- 
severance of man has now left but little to be done in that once 
extensive and honourable field. The shores of every continent 
have been explored-— the centre of every country has been pene- 
trated save that of Australia — thousands of pounds have been 
expended in expeditions to the Poles— but this country, round 
which a girdle of civilization is forming, is neglected, and its 
recesses, whether desert or fertile, are unsought and unexplored. 
What is known of the interior is due rather to private enterprise 
than to public energy. Here then there is still a field for the 
ambitious to tread. Over the centre of this mighty continent 
there hangs a veil which the most enterprising might be proud 
to raise. The path to it, I would venture to say, is full of diffi- 
culty and danger ; and to him who first treads it much will be 
due. I, who have been as far as any, have seen danger and 
difficulty thicken around me as I advanced, and I cannot but 
anticipate the same obstacles to the explorer, from whatever 
point of these extreme shores he may endeavour to force his 
way. Nevertheless, gentlemen, I shall envy that man who shall 
first plant the flag of our native country in the centre of our 
adopted one. There is not one deed in those days to be 
compared with it, and to whoever may undertake so praise- 
worthy and so devoted a task, I wish that success, which 
Heaven sometimes vouchsafes to those who are actuated by the 
first of motives — the public good ; and the best of prin- 
ciples — a reliance on Providence. I would I myself could 
undertake such a task, but fear that may not be. However, 
there is a gentleman among us, who is anxious to undertake 
such a journey. He has calculated that in taking a party 
five hundred miles into the interior, the expense would not be 
