Copy 1, Volume 1
Three expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia, with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales / By Major T. L. Mitchell.
- Thomas Mitchell
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Three expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia, with descriptions of the recently explored region of Australia Felix, and of the present colony of New South Wales / By Major T. L. Mitchell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![to be a native of the soil to which he himself owes his existence. At an early hour on the following morning I took leave of my kind host, and also of my friend Mr. Dunlop, to whose scientific assistance in preparing for this journey 1 feel much indebted. Mr. James Macarthur accompanied me a few miles on the road ; we at length parted with re¬ gret, and I set forth on my journey in the direction of the IJawkesbury, along the road leading to the ferry across that river at Wiseman’s. I should here observe, that I had j)reviously arranged that the exploring party, which, being slower in its movements, had been dispatched two weeks before, should await my arrival on Foy Brook, beyond the river Hunter, where I expected to meet Mr. White also, the assistant surveyor whom 1 had selected to accompany me on this expedition. My ride on that day was along a ridge which extended up¬ wards of fifty miles through a succession of deep ravines, vhere no other objects met the eye than barren sandstone rocks, and stunted trees. With the hanksia and xanthorlicea ever in sight, the idea of hopeless sterility is ever present to the mind, for these, in sandy soils at least, grow only where nothing else can grow. The horizon is flat, affording no relief to the eye from the dreary and inhospitable scene which these solitudes present; they extend over a great portion of country uninhabital)le even by the aborigines. Yet here the patient labours of the surveyor have opened a road, al¬ though the stream of ])opulation must be confined to it, since it cannot spread over a region so utterly unprofitable and worthless. It is not until the traveller has completed a journey of fifty miles, that he enjoys the sight, doubly cheering after crossing such a desert, of green cultivated fields, and the dwellings of man. The broad waters of the llawkesbury then come unexpectedly in view, flowing in the deepest, and ap])arently most inaccessible of these rock-})ound vallies. He](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29335966_0001_0041.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
