Attacked by the Natives at Weld Springs.
On the March. The Spinifex Desert.
Reaching the Overland Telegraph Line.



EXPLORATIONS IN AUSTRALIA.

CHAPTER 1.

Previous Expeditions into the Interior.
Attempts to discover a Route between South and Western Australia.
Eyre's Disastrous Journey.
Leichardt, the Lost Explorer.
The Latest Explorations.

As the history of the principal expeditions into the interior of
Australia has been narrated by several able writers, I do not propose to
repeat what has already been so well told. But, to make the narrative of
my own journeys more intelligible, and to explain the motives for making
them, it is necessary that I should briefly sketch the expeditions
undertaken for the purpose of ascertaining the nature of the vast regions
intervening between Western and the other Australian colonies, and
determining the possibility of opening up direct overland communication.

With energetic, if at times uncertain, steps the adventurous colonists
have advanced from the settlements on the eastern and southern coasts of
the vast island into the interior. Expeditions, led by intrepid
explorers, have forced their way against all but insurmountable
difficulties into the hitherto unknown regions which lie to the north and