victs
made good roads, farms were measured up, and the country was surveyed and
divided into countries. Colonization extended rapidly to the shores of
the southern ocean, and Australia Felix was made known to the British
public.

The survey touched the limits of the then unknown country, for the
direction of great roads from a centre could not be considered permanent,
however limited the colony, without such consideration of their ultimate
tendency as could only be given with a knowledge of the whole intervening
country. My plans of exploration have been governed by these views and
objects, and the journey recorded in these pages was intended to complete
the last of three lines radiating from Sydney. One led across the Blue
mountains to Bathurst and the western interior as far as the land seemed
worth exploring; another by Goulburn to Australia Felix and the southern
coast; and, lastly, this, the third general route, to the northern shores
at the nearest point, the head of the Gulf of Carpentaria,--from which I
trust that by this time my assistant Mr. Kennedy will have returned to
Sydney.

Held responsible by the Government for the performance of such a duty[*],
I have endeavoured to work out its views with that unity of plan which
must result from a mathematical principle, and which has enabled me to
bring to a satisfactory conclusion, after the lapse of many years, and in
the face of considerable difficulty, an undertaking commenced at the
command of my Sovereign, and under the auspices of the British
Government. That the Royal Instructions were originally intended for the
benefit of the colony of New South Wales is best evinced by the fact that
this journey of survey and exploration has been undertaken on the
petition of the Legislative Council of the Colony, and performed wholly
at the expense of the colony of New South Wales.

[* Appendix, Letter No. 30/1252., page 431.]

It now remains for me to submit my final "Report," or, in other words, to
point out how the geographical knowledge thus acquired may be available
for the economical extension of that colonisation which the expansive
energies of this great nation seem to require. New South Wales may be
benefited, it is true, by the establishment of any additional market on
the eastern coast, for her produce; and by a road to the Gulf of
Carpentaria; but a timely knowledge of the structure of the interior was
necessary to enable the Government to determine on th