Vlll 
PREFACE. 
public, the author would also solicit their indul- 
gence, for the manner in which the task has been 
performed. The only merit to which he can lay 
claim, is that of having faithfully described what 
he saw, and the impressions which were produced 
upon him at the time. In other respects it is feared 
that a work, which was entirely (and consequently 
very hastily) prepared for the press from the original 
notes, whilst voyaging from Australia to England, 
must necessarily be crude and imperfect. Where 
the principal object, however, was rather to record 
with accuracy than indulge in theory or conjecture, 
and where a simple statement of occurrences has 
been more attended to than the language in which 
they are narrated, plainness and fidelity will, it is 
hoped, be considered as some compensation for the 
absence of the embellishments of a more finished 
style, or a studied composition, and especially as the 
uncertainty attending the duration of the author’s 
visit to England made it a matter of anxious con- 
sideration to hurry these volumes through the press 
as rapidly as possible. There is one circumstance 
to which he wishes particularly to allude, as ac- 
counting for the very scanty notices he is now able 
to give of the geology or botany of the country 
through which he travelled ; it is the loss of all the 
specimens that were collected during the earlier part 
of the Expedition, which occurred after they had 
been sent to Adelaide ; this loss has been irreparable, 
and has not only prevented him from ascertaining 
