259 
Interior of New Holland. 
1 could neither advance nor retreat; my sojourn at the dep&t was 
one of ceaseless anxiety and sorrow. I had one object in view— 
the penetration of Central Australia—I was bound to this, both 
by my instructions, and my own earnest desire; and I would not 
have turned aside from such a pursuit to traverse the finest 
country under heaven, so long as I retained strength and hope. 
It was not to keep round the borders of a desert that I was sent 
out, but to make my way into the heart of a mighty continent, to 
penetrate to a spot which I firmly believe was never trodden by 
the foot, either of civilized or uncivilized man, and which none 
but the ambitious will now ever attempt to gain. I did my 
utmost to achieve that which would have done me honor: but 
I failed. Nevertheless, I should have rejoiced if fertile regions 
had been in my path, and if under the guidance of Providence I 
could have opened out new prospects of advantage to the 
Australian colonies. 
It remains for me to detail the events that took place just pre¬ 
ceding and subsequently to the breaking up of the Depot. I 
had, whilst the men were idle, employed them in chaining towards 
the creek I had traced, on my return from my second journey 
northwards, at the extremity of which I had determined to fix my 
second Depot, when I should move. We had connected our 
camp with the Darling, by careful bearings as we advanced up 
the country; but I foresaw that on resuming our labours we 
should soon lose the means of continuing them. Revolving in 
my mind the direction in which I should go in the event of the 
fall of rain, it appeared to me that I could not do better than 
push for the N.E. angle of Lake Torrens. I hoped, indeed, that 
I should find it connected with some more central body of water, 
the early discovery of which would facilitate my future operations. 
Under any circumstances, I should be making to the point I 
wanted to gain, the 138th meridian, through the centre of the 
Province of South Australia. Having decided, then, on this 
step, I thought it desirable to connect the eastern with the 
western surveys by some more satisfactory process than lunar 
observations, and so to fix approximately, at all events, the dis¬ 
tance between the Darling and Lake Torrens. It was with this 
