taken from a position in latitude 15 degrees 36 minutes and longitude 130
degrees 52 minutes East; 140 miles distant from the sea: but still 500
miles from the centre of Australia. Its apparent direction continued most
invitingly from the southward--the very line to the heart of this vast
land, whose unknown interior has afforded so much scope for ingenious
speculation, and which at one time I had hoped, that it was reserved for
us to do yet more in reducing to certainty. And though from the point
upon which I stood to pay it my last lingering farewell, the nearest
reach of water was itself invisible, yet far, far away I could perceive
the green and glistening valleys through which it wandered, or rather
amid which it slept; and the refreshing verdure of which assured me, just
as convincingly as actual observation could have done, of the constant
presence of a large body of water; and left an indelible impression upon
my mind, which subsequent consideration has only served to deepen, that
the Victoria will afford a certain pathway far into the centre of that
country, of which it is one of the largest known rivers.

When I had at length most reluctantly made up my mind that all further
progress along the banks of the Victoria must be abandoned, I left the
spot of our temporary encampment, and proceeded alone a short distance in
the direction of the interior; as though partly to atone, by that single
and solitary walk towards the object of my eager speculation, for the
grievous disappointment I experienced at being compelled to return. It
was something, even by this short distance, to precede my companions in
the exciting work of discovery--to tread alone the solitary glades upon
which, till now, no native of the civilized West had set his foot--and to
muse in solemn and unbroken silence upon the ultimate results of the work
to which the last few days had been devoted--to mark the gradual but
certain progression of civilization and christianity--and to breathe
forth, unwitnessed and uninterrupted, the scarce coherent words of