excursion to Collier Bay--Swan River--Native steward "Miago"--Amusing
inspection--Meeting with the explorers at Hanover Bay--Lieutenant Grey's
description of native tribes--Miago's memory--Fremantle--Needed
communication--Beagle at Hobart Town--Survey work at Cape
Otway--Exploration of northwest coast--Reminiscences of
colonisation--Discovery of the Adelaide River--A serious comedy--Port
Essington and Clarence Straits--Harbour of Port Darwin named--The
Victoria River--Extravagant hopes--Land party organized--Captain Stokes
speared--Return to Swan River--Beagle again North--Examination of Sweer's
Island--Flinders and Albert Rivers discovered--Inland navigation--Gun
accident--Native mode of burial--Fallacious Theorising--The Beagle's
surveying concluded--Maritime exploration closes.

Chapter XX
Nationality of the first finders of Australia--Knowledge of the
Malays--The bamboo introduced--Traces of smallpox amongst the natives in
the north-west--Tribal rites--Antipathy to pork--Evidence of admixture in
origin--Influence of Asiatic civilisation partly visible--Coast
appearance repelling--Want of indigenous food plants--Lack of intercourse
with other nations--Little now left of unexplored country--Conclusions
respecting various geological formations--Extent of continental
divisions--Development of coastal towns--Inducements for
population--Necessity of the first explorings--Pioneer squatters'
efforts--First Australian-born explorer--Desert theory exploded--Fertile
downs everywhere--Want of water apparently insurmountable--Heroism of
explorers--Inexperience of the early settlers--Grazing possible--Rapid
stocking of country--The barrenness of the "Great Bight"--Sturt, the Penn
of Australia--Results--Mitchell's work--Baron von Mueller's researches--A
salt lake--Stuart first man across the continent--Burke and Wills'
heroism--Services of McKinlay and Landsborough--John Forrest's