Overland Expedition of The Messrs dine from Rockhampton to Cape York, Northern Queensland | Page 5

the end. Although the matter
is ample, this is no easy task for an unpracticed pen, for to the general
reader, the usual monotonous details and entries of an explorer's notes,
which alone give them value to the geographer, cannot be hoped to
excite interest or command attention. But the journey was full of
incident, and the Brothers, although not scientific naturalists, were keen
sportsmen, excelling in all exercises requiring strength and activity,
who had acquired from their training in the bush that sharpening of the
senses and faculty of observing, the peculiar result of a life in the wilds,
which not only so well fitted them for the conduct of such an
expedition, but also enabled them to note and describe with accuracy
the various interesting objects in botany and zoology met with in the
course of their journey. It is therefore hoped that there will be sufficient
to interest each class of reader. Aided by Mr. Jardine, senior, a
gentleman of large experience in both Botany and Natural History, the
Editor has been enabled to supply the generic names of the birds and
plants met with; which, in many cases, if not altogether new, are
interesting as determining the range and habitat of the birds, and the
zones of vegetation and trees; but it is to be regretted that there was no
one in the party having sufficient knowledge of drawing to figure such
objects, or to delineate some of the more striking scenes and incidents
of the journey. As these can now only be supplied from the graphic
descriptions given by the actors in them, the Editor, without drawing

too much on his imagination, has, in the compilation of the journals,
attempted in some cases to supplement what was wanted in the text, so
as to give the narrative such color as would make it more readable than
a mere journal, but in every case rendering the descriptions of the
prominent incidents of the journey almost in the original words of the
writers, merely adding as much as would save the text from abruptness.
He has adhered to the diurnal form of narrative, for the sake of
recording, for the benefit of future travellers, the numbers, marks,
latitude, etc., of each camp, and endeavoured to compass by this
composite method the value of a work of record with the interest of a
narrative.
It is also to be regretted that so long a time should have been allowed to
elapse between the end of the journey and the publication of these
pages. The causes of the delay are -- first, the indisposition on the part
of the Brothers to "go into print," their modesty leading them to
imagine they had done nothing worth "writing about," nor was it until
the writer pressed them to allow him to compile and edit their journals
that they consented to make them public; next, the want of leisure on
the part of the compiler, whose official duties have prevented
application to his task, save in detached and interrupted periods; and
last, by the difficulty of making arrangements for publication at a
distance.
If his labor secures to the young explorers the credit and praise which is
the just and due reward of a gallant achievement, and adds a page of
interest to the records of Australian Exploration, his aim will have been
attained, and he will be fully rewarded.
The Hermitage, 'Rockhampton, December', 1866.
INTRODUCTION.
IN presenting the following pages to the Reader, it may not be out of
place to take a retrospect of the progress of Australian Settlement
generally, and particularly in the young northern colony of Queensland.
During the last six years the great question of the character of Central

Australia, in the solution of which the lives of the unfortunate
Leichhardt and his party have been sacrificed, has been set at rest by
the memorable trip of Burke and Wills, and no less memorable, but
more fortunate one of McDouall Stewart. The Search Expeditions of
McKinlay, Howitt, Landsborough, and Walker, have made it still more
familiar, their routes connecting the out-settlements of South Australia
with those of the Gulf Shores and East Coast, and adding their quota of
detail to the skeleton lines of Leichhardt, Gregory, and Burke and Wills;
whilst private enterprise has, during that time, been busy in further
filling in the spaces, and utilizing the knowledge gained by occupying
the waste lands thus opened up.
It is questionable whether the amount of available country thus made
known has not been dearly purchased, by the very large sums that have
been expended, and the valuable lives that have been lost in its
exploration; the arid and waterless wastes of the interior, which have
now been proved equally subject to terrific droughts and devastating
floods, make it improbable