while the deficiency of water on the route appeared to offer the greatest
impediment. We were not, however, deterred from the attempt, and on the
30th of March, 1870, we started from Perth on a journey which all knew to
be dangerous, but which we were sanguine enough to believe might produce
considerable results.

That we were not disappointed the result will prove. Indeed, the
difficulties were much fewer than we had been prepared to encounter; and
in five months from the date of departure from Perth we arrived safely at
Adelaide, completing a journey which Mr. Eyre had been more than twelve
months in accomplishing.

THE EXPLORING PARTY.

My party was thus composed: I was leader; the second in command was my
brother, Alexander Forrest, a surveyor; H. McLarty, a police constable;
and W. Osborne, a farrier and shoeing smith, these with Tommy Windich,
the native who had served me so faithfully on the previous expedition,
and another native, Billy Noongale, an intelligent young fellow,
accompanied us.

Before I enter upon the details of my journey it may be useful to state
as briefly as possible the efforts made to obtain a better acquaintance
with the vast territory popularly known as No Man's Land, which had been
traversed by Eyre, and afterwards to summarize the little knowledge which
had been obtained.

In 1860 Major Warburton--who afterwards, in 1873 and 1874, succeeded in
crossing the northern part of the great inland desert, after enduring
great privations--contrived to reach eighty-five miles beyond the head of