thoroughness was mixed up with his plan, simple as it reads. An incursion
of five hundred miles north and south, respectively, would without doubt,
if possible, have done much towards an earlier knowledge of the interior.

His dream of sailing up a deep estuary--some great water way--leading to
more fertile lands than those of the coast inhabited by a superior race
of natives, had vanished. As the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria
rounded his course from south to west, and from west to north, so the
picture his fancy had painted faded; and he found himself compelled to
fall back upon the conception of a mode of transit patriarchal in its
simplicity.

He writes:--

"With five or six asses to carry provisions (and they can be obtained
here), expeditions might be made into the interior of Australia from the
head of the Gulph of Carpentaria in 18 deg., and from the head of the
great gulph on the south coast in 32 deg., until the courses should
nearly meet, five hundred miles each way would most probably be
sufficient, since the country does not appear to be mountainous: a view
of my general chart will exemplify this. In case of being again sent to
Australia, I should much wish that this was a part of my instructions."
[Note: Referring to Flinders' scheme for exploring Australia, it may be
amusing to the reader to contrast it with one projected some years later
by M. Malte Brun. In his case, the amount of material the eminent
geographer considered necessary for the expedition is as excessive as
that of Captain Flinders' was simple. His method for exploring the
continent is this: "In order to determine these questions" (namely the
different theories propounded as to the nature of the interior) "it has
been proposed to send an expedition to penetrate the country from