T. & W. BOONE, NEW BOND STREET.


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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The following Journals were written at the close of many a laborious day,
when the energies both of mind and body were almost exhausted by
long-continued toil. The author trusts that this circumstance will
account for, and palliate, some of the defects which may be discovered in
his volumes. Conscious as he is of the deficiencies of his work, he
nevertheless hopes that the reader will not pronounce it to be wholly
devoid of interest. Though Australia calls up no historical
recollections, no classical associations of ideas, it has other, and not
less valid titles to our attention. It is a new and vast country, over
the largest portion of which a veil of mystery still hangs; many of its
productions vary in a singular manner, from those in other parts of the
world; within the memory of man one British colony has risen there, in
spite of adverse circumstances, to a high degree of prosperity; others
have been founded, which promise to be equally successful; and it seems
impossible to doubt that, at no distant period, the whole territory will
be inhabited by a powerful people, speaking the English language,
diffusing around them English civilisation and arts, and exercising a
predominant influence over eastern Asia, and the numerous and extensive
islands in that quarter of the globe.

In his expeditions into the interior of Australia, the author was led
cheerfully on, by an eager curiosity to examine a country which is yet in