discover the Macquarie beyond the marsh of
Mr. Oxley, and following it to its mouth if at all practicable.

7. There is some reason to believe that the over-flowing of the
Macquarie when visited by Mr. Oxley, was occasioned by heavy rains
falling in the mountains to the eastward, and that as you are to visit
the same spot at a different season of the year, you may escape such
embarrassment; but although you should get beyond the point at which
Mr. Oxley stopped, it would not be prudent to risk your own health or
that of your men, by continuing long in a swampy country. Therefore it
may be advisable for you in the first instance to leave the greater
part of your men, bullocks, and baggage, at Mount Harris, and if you
should see a probability of your being able to cross into the interior,
you will then return to Mount Harris for such additional supplies as
you may judge necessary. You can there communicate with Mr. Maxwell
respecting any ulterior arrangements which you may be desirous of
making.

8. The success of the expedition is so desirable an object, that I
cannot too strongly impress upon you the importance of perseverance in
endeavouring to skirt any waters or marshes which may check your course
as long as you have provisions sufficient for your return; but you must
be cautious not to proceed a single day's journey further than where
you find that your provisions will be barely sufficient to enable you
to reach the nearest place at which you can depend upon getting
supplies.

9. If after every endeavour you should find it totally impracticable to
get to the westward, you are still to proceed northward, keeping as
westerly a direction as possible; and when the state of your provisions
will oblige you to retreat, you will be guided by your latitude, as to
the place to which you are to make the best of your way, but you are
not to make for any place on the coast, if Wellington valley should
still be nearer.

10. You must be aware that the success of the expedition will greatly
depend upon the time for which your provisions will hold out, and
therefore you will see the great importance of observing every possible
economy in the expenditure of provisions, and preventing waste of every
kind.

11. You are to keep a detailed account of your proceedings in a
journal, in which all observations and occurrences of every kind, with
all their circumstances, however minute, are to be carefully noted
down. You are to be pa