eral points. No account was made of it, either in the way of settlement or exploration; and it was not known whether the several parts seen were points of one continent or were separate islands. The island of New Guinea had fallen under the notice of the Dutch in their commerce with Java, and an expedition was sent by them to explore the former country. The exploring vessel saw the coast of Australia to the south of Endeavor Strait, as it has been since called, on the northeast coast, near the Gulf of Carpentaria. A few months later, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros and Luis Vaez de Torres discovered, while sailing in company, the islands which were called by them Terra del Espiritu Santo (Land of the Holy Ghost), and since called New Hebrides, — six hundred miles eastward of the Australian continent; and after their separation, Torres saw the coast of Australia at its most northern point, now called Cape York. These discoveries were severally made in the first decade of the seventeenth century, from 1605 to 1607. In the succeeding quarter of a century, a large extent of coast was discovered by the Dutch; and in 1642 Tasman discovered Van Diemen's Land.

For all purposes, however, it remained for nearly two centuries as if its existence had not been known. Captain Cook, at about the period of the American Revolution, discovered a large part of the eastern coast; soon after which the English government established a colony in New South Wales, at Port Jackson, and farther discoveries followed on the southern coast of the continent.

Some partial explorations of the interior were made from time to time in a course of years, beginning with the expedition of Mr. Oxley, on the Lachlan River, in 1817, and on the Macquarie, in 1818. Howell and Hume examined some of the country on branches of the Murrumbidgee. In 1829 Captain Sturt followed Mr. Oxley's route on the Macquarie, and extended his examination about one hundred miles farther toward the west; and

to the Gold Regions and a Description of the Mines, with an Estimate of the probable Results of the great Discovery. By JoHN DUNMORE LANG, D.D., A.M., recently one of the Representatives of Sydney in the Legislative Council of New South Wales, etc. Third Edition, bringing down the History of the Colony to the 1st of July, 1852. London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1852. 2 vols. Demi 8vo.

VOL. LVI. 4TH S. VOL: XXI. NO. II.

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in the next year he explored the Murrumbidgee and Hume. These expeditions were the opening of the book of Australia to the world.

A little more than twenty years ago, the attention of the English government, and of some of its accomplished and enterprising officers, was turned to that country as a field of discovery and exploration. Expeditions were organized for surveying the coasts and exploring the interior. Captains King, Stokes, and others, have presented to the public the information derived from the voyages on the coasts, and Captain Grey has given an account of his exploration of the west and northwest parts of the continent; and Sturt, Eyre, Mitchell, and Leichhardt, of their expeditions into the interior, in several directions. Strzelecki, Lang, Dutton, and Lord Eden have written geographical and historical sketches. Mr. Hodgkinson has published a sketch of the eastern coast, for an extent of three hundred miles from the vicinity of Port Macquarie in about 32° south, to about 27°, including the country about Moreton Bay and Brisbane River. The attention. of the local government seems to have been at first excited by the stories of a runaway convict, or, as called there, a bush-ranger, who reported that a great river flowed from high up toward the north out to the sea, southwesterly. These expeditions and explorations have resulted in making the world pretty well acquainted with the new continent, and its geographical character, natural history, and capacities. In extent it exceeds two thousand miles from east to west, or 39° of longitude, from 115° to 154°, and is about eighteen hundred miles from north to south, comprising 29° of latitude, from 10° to 39°. It was found sparsely inhabited by two distinct black races, one resembling the Malay, the other in color and hair having some resemblance to the African negro, but differing in features.

The information which led to the modern series of discoveries in the interior was communicated by George Clarke, a convict, who escaped from the vigilance of the police at Sydney, and lived for a time among the wild natives of the country. These people, it is known to our readers, wear no covering. Their dwellings are merely lodges of ten or twelve feet in diameter and four feet high, into which they crawl and lie occasionally, for

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shelter against sun or rain, or for repose, and are made of the branches and twigs of bushes interlaced. Their food is, for the most part, wild game, which is wholesome, palatable, and abundant; though, we are informed by Mr. Hodgkinson, the tribes in the vicinity of the M Leay River make much account of obtaining a worm, which they find in decaying logs, and which seems to be an important part of their diet. They feed also on snakes, with which the country abounds. They are generally of good disposition, peaceable, and honest. With these people Clarke lived, having painted himself of their color to avoid detection by the police, and traversed regions before unvisited by white men; but being finally discovered and captured by the police, he gave information of the parts of the country which he had seen while he roamed with the natives. He reported that he had been on the banks of a large river to the northwest, called, as he said, the Kindur, by following which in a southwest direction he had reached the seacoast; on approaching which he saw a burning mountain, called Courada. As he described with correctness the course of some streams to the north, which were already known to the English residents, some credence was given to that part of his story which described the unknown region. Accounts had already been current of a river running northwest from Liverpool Plains, a tract of country behind Sydney, and by the relation of Clarke, the attention of the acting governor, Sir Patrick Lindsay, was drawn to the investigation of the truth of the matter; and an expedition was organized under the direction of Sir T. L. Mitchell, Surveyor-General, for exploring the interior. The magnitude of the anticipated enterprise, and the feelings of the leader in relation to its difficulties. and the importance of its results, are so well expressed by him, that we repeat here his language, as a prelude to the opening of this new book of nature."

"I left Sydney at noon on Thurday, the 24th day of November, 1831, to prosecute my journey, being accompanied for some miles by my friend, Colonel Snodgrass.

"It was not until then that my mind was sufficiently relieved

*Sir T. L. Mitchell's Three Expeditions into the Interior of Australia, Vol. I. p. 2.

from considering the details of my department to enable me to direct my thoughts to the undiscovered country. I had yet to traverse three hundred miles, for thus far the flocks of the colonists extended from Sydney, before I could reach that vast, untrodden soil, the exploration of which was the object of my mission. I felt the ardor of my early youth, when I first sought distinction in the crowded camp and battle-field, revive, as I gave loose, at length, to my reflections, and considered the nature of the enterprise. But in comparing the feelings I then experienced with those which excited my youthful ambition, it seemed that even war and victory, with all their glory, were far less alluring than the pursuit of researches such as these, for the purpose of spreading the light of civilization over a portion of creation as yet unknown, rich, perhaps, in the luxuriance of uncultivated nature, where science might accomplish new and unthought of discoveries, and intelligent man would find a region teeming with useful vegetation, abounding with rivers, hills, and valleys, and waiting only for his enterprising spirit and improving hand to turn to account the native bounty of the soil."

The portion of Clarke's story relating to the Peel and Nammoy Rivers was found by Sir T. L. Mitchell to be correct; but he says that his further account of the large river was a pure invention. He says, "I examined him in the hulk at Sydney," (after his, Mitchell's, return from the expedition,)" and was satisfied that he had never been beyond the Nundawar range" (a range of hills terminating about one hundred miles from a point of the Darling bearing northwest). "This journey of discovery," he says, "proved that any large river flowing to the northwest must be far to the northward of lat. 29°. All the rivers south of that parallel, and which had been described by the Barber [Clarke] as falling into such a river as the 'Kindur,' have been ascertained to belong wholly to the basin of the Darling."

* Mr. Mitchell has either misreported the story of Clarke, or he has suffered himself to lapse into a strange confusion. His report of the story of Clarke is, as before related from his own volume, that, by following the Kindur in a southwest direction, he had twice reached the sea-shore. (See Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol. I. p. 2.) This, it is now known, may be done. But he discredits the story of Clarke for the reason that he did not find a large river flowing to the northwest, (Ibid., Vol. I. p. 139,) which was not stated by Clarke to be the case. He did find a river which flows to the southwest, and in that direction reaches the sea, as told by Clarke. This is the Darling, called by the natives, where struck by Mitchell, Karaula, and, it may be, at some other point, Kindur. In describing his course to this river as northwest, it is more than

From that date to the present time, explorations into the interior have been made by Messrs. Sturt, Mitchell, Eyre, and others.

Australia is divided into several provinces or colonies. New South Wales covers an extensive region on the eastern coast, from the extreme north to 35° south, or about fifteen hundred miles, extending westward from the sea-coast in 154° E. to 141°, being over six hundred miles in breadth in its southern portion, and less in the northern.* South Australia occupies the region extending from 141° E. to 132° E. or nearly or about five hundred miles from east to west; and from 26° to 38° south latitude, though the sea line confines a large portion of it north of 34° and 35°, making its average extent north and south about six hundred miles.

The new colony of Victoria is of small extent, occupying a tract of two hundred and fifty miles from north to south, and five hundred miles from east to west, in the southeastern portion of the continent. It is, however, said to be the best portion as to fertility and agricultural capacity; and was called by Mr. Mitchell, the Surveyor, in reference to this character, Australia Felix. The district of Port Philip is included in this colony, and within its territory the most abundant discoveries of gold have been recently made, including the mines of Ballarat and Mount Alexander.

Of the immense tract lying between the sea and South Australia, from 115° to 132° east longitude, and extending across the continent north and south from 15°

probable that a vagabond like Clarke did not mark it quite so accurately without a compass as the Surveyor-General with his instruments. It may be supposed that he followed the Nammoy, whose course to the Darling is very near northwest, while Mr. Mitchell bore farther north. But it was the position of the higher part of the stream relative to the settlement at Sydney, and his course from the Nundawar range to the Kindur, that was, as he stated, to the northwest; not the course of the river, which he said flowed to the southwest. It seems, therefore, not improbable, that Clarke was the first white man who followed the Darling to its union with the Murray, and to the sea. But neither did Mr. Mitchell, in his exploration, seek for a river flowing to the northwest, and this idea is inconsistent with his whole narrative, unless he conceived the Darling to flow thither.

* According to Mitchell, its western boundary is 145° east longitude, and the Darling and Murray Rivers. In the National Cyclopædia, the average width east to west is stated at six hundred and thirty miles, length north to south about nine hundred miles, its northern limit being 26°, its southern the ocean. This limit leaves a large territory for another province to the north.