briefly to the circumstances which led to the
undertaking itself, that the public being fully in possession of the
motives and inducements which led me, at a very great sacrifice of my
private means, to engage in an exploration so hazardous and arduous, and
informed of the degree of confidence reposed in me by those interested in
the undertaking, and the sanguine hopes and high expectations that were
formed as to the result, may be better able to judge how far that
confidence was well placed, and how far my exertions were commensurate
with the magnitude of the responsibility I had undertaken.

I have felt it the more necessary to allude to this subject now, because
I was in some measure at the time instrumental in putting a stop to a
contemplated expedition to the westward, and of thus unintentionally
interfering with the employment of a personal friend of my own, than whom
no one could have been more fitted to command an undertaking of the kind,
from his amiable disposition, his extensive experience, and his general
knowledge and acquirements.

Upon returning, about the middle of May 1840, from a visit to King
George's Sound and Swan River, I found public attention in Adelaide
considerably engrossed with the subject of an overland communication
between Southern and Western Australia. Captain Grey, now the Governor of
South Australia, had called at Adelaide on his way to England from King
George's Sound, and by furnishing a great deal of interesting information
relative to Western Australia, and pointing out the facilities that
existed on its eastern frontier, as far as it was then known, for the
entrance of stock from the Eastward, had called the attention of the
flock-masters of the Colony to the importance of opening a communication
between the two places, with a view to the extension of their pastoral
interests. The notes of Captain Grey, referring to this subject, were
published in the South Australian Register newspaper of the 28th March,
1840. On the 30th of the same month, a number of gentlemen, many of whom
were owners of large flocks and herds, met together, for the purpose of
taking the matter into consideration, and the result of this conference
was the appointment of a Committee, whose duty it was to report upon the
best means of accomplishing the object in view. On the 4th, 7th, and 9th
of April other meetings were held, and the results published in the South
Australian Register, of the 11th April, as foll