Biographical Notes, by J.H. Maiden.
Spinifex and Sand, by David Carnegie.


INTRODUCTION.

In introducing this book, I should like to commend it to its readers as
giving an account of the explorers of Australia in a simple and concise
form not hitherto available.

It introduces them to us, tells the tale of their long-tried patience and
stubborn endurance, how they lived and did their work, and gives a short
but graphic outline of the work they accomplished in opening out and
preparing Australia as another home for our race on this side of the
world.

The battle that they fought and won was over great natural difficulties
and obstacles, as fortunately there were no ferocious wild beasts in
Australia, while the danger from the hostility of the aborigines (though
a barbarous people) was with care and judgment, with a few exceptions,
avoided.

Their triumph has resulted in peaceful progress and in permanent
occupation and settlement of a vast continent.

Of all the Australian explorers the fate of Leichhardt -- "the Franklin
of Australia," as the author so justly terms him -- is alone shrouded in
mystery. "No man knoweth his sepulchre to this day." His party of six
white men (including Leichhardt) and two black boys, with 12 horses, 13
mules, 50 bullocks, and 270 goats, have never been heard of since they