e, however deserving and
indisputable his claims thereto. (Cheers.) He believed with the Inquirer
that it was Mr. Forrest's natural instinct to lead a hard life in the
cause of exploration. He belonged--not by birth it was true, but through
his parents--to a country that had produced such men as Mungo Park;
Bruce, who explored the sources of the Nile; and Campbell, who, labouring
in the same cause, traversed the wilds of Africa; and that greatest and
noblest of all explorers, the dead but immortal Livingstone. (Cheers.)
Mr. Forrest's achievements had entitled his name to stand side by side in
the page of history with men of that stamp and others who had placed the
human family under such great obligations by their undaunted and
self-denying efforts in the cause of exploration. (Cheers.) It would not
perhaps be right on his part to refer to the pecuniary reward which the
Legislature had voted as an honorarium to Mr. Forrest and his party, but
he would say this much--and he believed every one in the colony would be
in accord with him--that the public would not have grumbled, on the
contrary, would have been glad if the grant had been 1000 pounds and not
500 pounds. (Hear, hear.) He did not think for a moment that the
Legislative Council thought that 500 pounds was the measure of the value
of Mr. Forrest's services; they were rather influenced by the extent of
the public revenue and the ability of the country to pay a larger amount;
nevertheless, he would have been pleased, and the public would have been
pleased, had the vote been more commensurate with the value of those
services. (Cheers.) In asking the present assembly to join him in
drinking the toast of Mr. Forrest's health and that of his party, he
considered it was as if he moved a vote of thanks on behalf of the colony
for the labours in which they had been associated, for the honour they
had conferred on their country, and he would ask them to join him in
heartily drinking the toast. (Cheers.)

The toast was received with several rounds of cheering.

The Commandant rose in explanation, and said he never for a moment meant
to infer that in the midst of his greatest difficulties Mr. Forrest ever
thought of giving up his task. What he said was that he must have often,
in lying down his head after a wearisome day's journey, wished himself at
home in Perth all well, with his enterprise accomplished, but not
otherwise (cheers). He did not believe that Mr. Forrest ever w