Expeditions to South Australia | Page 4

VOLUMES
VOLUME I.
"For though most men are contented only to see a river as it runs by
them, and talk of the changes in it as they happen; when it is troubled,
or when clear; when it drowns the country in a flood, or forsakes it in a
drought: yet he that would know the nature of the water, and the causes
of those accidents (so as to guess at their continuance or return), must

find out its source, and observe with what strength it rises, what length
it runs, and how many small streams fall in, and feed it to such a height,
as make it either delightful or terrible to the eye, and useful or
dangerous to the country about it."...SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE'S
NETHERLANDS.

TO THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF RIPON, VISCOUNT
GODERICH, Lord Privy Seal &c. &c. &c.

MY LORD,
The completion of this Work affords me the opportunity I have long
desired of thanking your Lordship thus publicly, for the kindness with
which you acceded to my request to be permitted to dedicate it to you.
The encouragement your Lordship was pleased to give me has served
to stimulate me in the prosecution of a task, which would, I fear, have
been too great for me to have accomplished in my present condition,
under any ordinary views of ambition. Indeed, labouring as I have been
for many months past, under an almost total deprivation of sight, (the
effect of exposure and anxiety of mind in the prosecution of
geographical researches,) I owe it to the casual assistance of some of
my friends, that I am at length enabled to lay these results before your
Lordship and the public.
While I feel a painful conviction that many errors must necessarily
pervade a work produced under such unfavourable circumstances, it
affords me no small consolation to reflect that Your Lordship has been
aware of my situation, and will be disposed to grant me every
reasonable indulgence.
I have the honor to be, With the highest respect, My Lord, Your
Lordship's Very obedient and humble servant,
CHARLES STURT London, June, 1833.

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
Purpose of this Chapter--Name of Australia--Impressions of its early
Visitors--Character of the Australian rivers--Author's first view of Port

Jackson--Extent of the Colony of New South Wales--its rapid advances
in prosperity--Erroneous impressions--Commercial importance of
Sydney--Growth of fine wool--Mr. M'Arthur's meritorious
exertions--Whale-fishery--Other exports--Geographical
features--Causes of the large proportion of bad soil--Connection
between the geology and vegetation--Geological features-- Character of
the soil connected with the geological formation--County of
Cumberland--Country westward of the Blue Mountains--Disadvantages
of the remote settlers--Character of the Eastern coast--Rich tracts in the
interior--Periodical droughts--The seasons apparently affected by the
interior marshes--Temperature--Fruits--Emigrants: Causes of their
success or failure--Moral disadvantages--System of emigration
recommended--Hints to emigrants--Progress of inland
discovery--Expeditions across the Blue Mountains--Discoveries of Mr.
Evans, Mr. Oxley, and others--Conjectures respecting the interior.
EXPEDITION DOWN THE MACQUARIE RIVER, AND INTO THE
WESTERN INTERIOR IN 1828 AND 1829.
CHAPTER I
.
State of the Colony in 1828-29--Objects of the Expedition--Departure
from Sydney--Wellington Valley--Progress down the
Macquarie--Arrival at Mount Harris--Stopped by the marshes--Encamp
amidst reeds--Excursions down the river--Its termination-- Appearance
of the marshes--Opthalmic affection of the men--Mr. Hume's
successful journey to the northward-- Journey across the plain--Second
great marsh--Perplexities--Situation of the exploring party--Consequent
resolutions.
CHAPTER II
.
Prosecution of our course into the interior--Mosquito Brush--Aspect
and productions of the country--Hunting party of natives--Courageous
conduct of one of them--Mosquitoes--A man missing--Group of hills
called New-Year's Range--Journey down New-Year's
Creek--Tormenting attack of the kangaroo fly--Dreariness and
desolation of the country--Oxley's Table Land--D'Urban's

Group--Continue our journey down New-Year's Creek-- Extreme
Disappointment on finding it salt--Fall in with a tribe of natives--Our
course arrested by the want of fresh water--Extraordinary
sound--Retreat towards the Macquarie.
CHAPTER III
.
Intercourse with the natives--Their appearance and condition--Remarks
on the Salt or Darling River--Appearance of the marshes on our return--
Alarm for safety of the provision party--Return to Mount
Harris--Miserable condition of the natives--Circumstances attending
the slaughter of two Irish runaways--Bend our course towards the
Castlereagh--Wallis's Ponds-- Find the famished natives feeding on
gum--Channel of the Castlereagh-- Character of the country in its
vicinity--Another tribe of natives-- Amicable intercourse with
them--Morrisset's chain of Ponds--Again reach the Darling River ninety
miles higher up than where we first struck upon it.
CHAPTER IV
.
Perplexity--Trait of honesty in the natives--Excursion on horseback
across the Darling--Forced to return--Desolating effects of the
drought--Retreat towards the colony--Connection between the
Macquarie and the Darling-- Return up the banks of the
Macquarie--Starving condition of the natives.
CHAPTER V
.
General remarks--Result of the expedition--Previous anticipations-- Mr.
Oxley's remarks--Character of the Rivers flowing westerly-- Mr.
Cunningham's remarks--Fall of the Macquarie--Mr. Oxley's erroneous
conclusions respecting the character of the interior, naturally inferred
from the state in which he found the