the British Empire. Although however, they agree to differ amongst
themselves, there can be no doubt of the loyalty of the group, as a
whole, to their parent nation. I shall go no further into this matter,
as, although English enough, it is foreign to my subject. I shall
treat more especially of the colony or colonies within whose
boundaries my travels led me, and shall begin with South Australia,
where my first expedition was conducted.

South Australia includes a vast extent of country called the Northern
Territory, which must become in time a separate colony, as it extends
from the 26th parallel of latitude, embracing the whole country
northwards to the Indian Ocean at the 11th parallel. South Australia
possesses one advantage over the other colonies, from the geographical
fact of her oblong territory extending, so to speak, exactly in the
middle right across the continent from the Southern to the Indian
Ocean. The dimensions of the colony are in extreme length over 1800
miles, by a breadth of nearly 700, and almost through the centre of
this vast region the South Australian Transcontinental Telegraph line
runs from Adelaide, via Port Augusta, to Port Darwin.

At the time I undertook my first expedition in 1872, this extensive
work had just been completed, and it may be said to divide the
continent into halves, which, for the purpose I then had in view,
might be termed the explored and the unexplored halves. For several
years previous to my taking the field, I had desired to be the first
to penetrate into this unknown region, where, for a thousand miles in
a straight line, no white man's foot had ever wandered, or, if it had,
its owner had never brought it back, nor told the tale. I had ever
been a delighted student of the narratives of voyages and discoveries,
from Robinson Crusoe to Anson and Cook, and the exploits on land in