therefore to combine geographical research with my private
undertaking, I commenced my journey at the ford where the road crosses
the Hume to Port Phillip, and in so doing connected the whole of the
waters of the south-east angle of the Australian continent.

In this instance, however, as in those to which I have already alluded,
no progress was made in advancing our knowledge of the more central parts
of the continent.

In the year 1839 Mr. Eyre, now Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, fitted
out an expedition, and under the influence of the most praiseworthy
ambition, tried to penetrate into the interior from Mount Arden; but,
having descended into the basin of Lake Torrens, he was baffled at every
point. Turning, therefore, from that inhospitable region, he went to Port
Lincoln, from whence he proceeded along the line of the south coast to
Fowler's Bay, the western limit of the province of South Australia.

He then determined on one of those bold movements, which characterise all
his enterprises, and leaving the coast, struck away to the N.E. for Mount
Arden along the Gawler Range; but the view from the summit of that rugged
line of hills, threw darkness only on the view he obtained of the distant
interior, and he returned to Adelaide without having penetrated further
north than 29 degrees 30 minutes, notwithstanding the unconquerable
perseverance and energy he had displayed.

In the following year, the colonists of South Australia, with the
assistance of the local government, raised funds to equip another
expedition to penetrate to the centre of the continent, the command of
which was entrusted to the same dauntless officer. On the morning on
which he was to take his departure, from the fair city of Adelaide,
Colonel Gawler, the Governor, gave a breakfast, to which he invited most
of the public officers and a number of the colonists, that they might
have the opportunity of thus collectively bidding adieu to one who had
already exerted himself so much for the public good.

Few, who were present at that breakfast will ever forget it, and few who
were there present, will refuse to Colonel Gawler the mead of praise due
to him, for the display on that occasion of the most liberal and generous
feelings. It was an occasion on which the best and noblest sympathies of
the heart were roused into play, and a scene during which many a bright
eye was dim through tears.

Some young ladies of the colony, amongst whom were Mis