JOURNALS OF EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY.

CHAPTER 1. COMMENCEMENT OF THE EXPEDITION. TENERIFE.

GENERAL PLAN AND OBJECTS.

The Expeditions of which the results are narrated in the following pages
took their origin from a proposition made to Government by myself, in
conjunction with Lieutenant Lushington,* in the latter part of the year
1836.

(*Footnote. Now Captain Lushington of the 9th Foot.)

At that time a large portion of the western coast and interior of the
great Australian continent had remained unvisited and unknown; whilst the
opinions of the celebrated navigators Captains Dampier and King,
connected with other circumstances, led to the inference, or at least the
hope, that a great river, or water inlet, might be found to open out at
some point on its western or north-western side; which had then been only
partially surveyed from seaward.

DESIGN OF THE EXPEDITION.

Anxious to solve this interesting geographical problem, we addressed a
letter to Lord Glenelg, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, wherein
we offered our services to conduct an exploration from the Swan River to
the northward, having regard to the direction of the coast, so as to