Production notes: * 12 items of errata listed in the book have been corrected in this eBook. * Illustrations, Maps and Charts have not been included in this eBook. * Notes included within the text have been included in square brackets [] in the text at the point referenced. * Italics have been converted to upper case....

PREFACE JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA PART II. APPENDIX PART I. No. I. Instructions for conducting and leading first expedition. No. II Report of tour over Blue Mountains in 1815 by the Governor. No. III Letter from Oxley to Governor advising of his return from first         expedition. APPENDIX PART II. No. IV Diary of Mr. Evans, from 8th to 18th of July, 1818. No. V. Governor's report on the return of Oxley from the second         expedition, together with a letter from Oxley on his ar

The colony had been established many years before any successful attempt had been made to penetrate into the interior of the country, by crossing the range of hills, known to the colonists as the Blue Mountains: these mountains were considered as the boundary of the settlements westward, the country beyond them being deemed inaccessible. The year 1813 proving extremely dry, the grass was nearly all destroyed, and the water failed; the horned cattle suffered severely from this drought, and died i

—qua nulla pedum vestigia ducunt, Nulla rotae currus testantur signa priores. GROTIUS. TO THE RIGHT HON. ROBERT PEEL, M. P. ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, etc. etc. etc. Sydney, New South Wales, July 21, 1819....

The general appearance of the country of New South Wales and the magnitude of the Macquarie River, as seen on the return of the expedition in 1817, had caused the most sanguine expectation to be entertained, that either a communication with the ocean, or interior navigable waters, would be discovered by following its course. The important benefits that would result to the colony in the event of such an expectation being realized, determined his Excellency Governor Macquarie to lose no time in fi

May 20, 1818. Having received his Excellency the Governor's instructions for the conduct of the expedition intended to examine the course of the Macquarie River, and every preparation having been made at the depot in Wellington Valley for that purpose, I quitted Sydney in company with Dr. Harris (late of the 102nd foot), and after a pleasant journey, arrived at Bathurst on the 25th. Our little arrangements having been completed by the 28th, we again set forward with the baggage horses and men th

No. I. By His Excellency, Lachlan Macquarie, Esq., Captain General, and Governor in Chief of the Territory of New South Wales, and its dependencies, etc. etc. Sir, The Right Honourable Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, having in a recent despatch authorised and directed me to select and employ a properly qualified and competent officer belonging to this government, for conducting and leading an expedition for the purpose of prosecuting the discoveries ma