AN ACCOUNT OF THE SEA COAST AND INTERIOR OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA WITH OBSERVATIONS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS CONNECTED WITH ITS INTERESTS.

CHAPTER I.

Duties of an explorer—­geographical position of south
Australia—­description of its coast line—­sea mouth of the
Murray—­entered by Mr. Pullen—­risk of the attempt—­beaching—­Rosetta
harbour—­Victor harbour—­Nepean bay—­kangaroo island—­Kingscote—­Capt. 
Lee’s instructions for port Adelaide—­port Adelaide—­removal to the north
arm—­harbour master’s report—­Yorke’s Peninsula—­port Lincoln—­Capt. 
Lee’s instructions—­Boston island—­Boston bay—­coffin’s bay—­Mr. Cameron
sent along the coast—­his report—­position of port Adelaide.

No mariner ever shook the reefs from his sails, on the abatement of the storm, under the fury of which his vessel had been labouring, with more grateful feelings than those with which I turn from the dreary and monotonous wastes I have been describing, to the contemplation of fairer and more varied scenes.  My weary task has been performed, and however uninteresting my narrative may have proved to the general reader, I would yet hope, that those who shall hereafter enter the field of Australian discovery, will profit from my experience, and be spared many of the inconveniences and sufferings to which I was unavoidably exposed.  They may rest assured, that it is only by steady perseverance and unceasing attention, by due precaution and a mild discipline, that they will succeed in such an undertaking as that in which I was engaged.  That unless they are fortunate enough to secure such an assistant as I had in Mr. Browne, their single eye must be over every thing, to study the features of the country through which they are passing, to keep their horses and cattle always within view, to prevent disputes in their camp, and to husband their provisions with the utmost care, to ascertain from time to time the quantity they may have on hand, and to regulate their consumption accordingly.  Few difficulties present themselves to the explorer in journeying down a river, for that way is smooth before him; it is when he quits its banks, and traverses a country, on the parched surface of which little or no water is to be found, that his trials commence, and he finds himself obliged to undergo that personal toil, which sooner or later will lay him prostrate.  Strictly speaking, my work should close here.  I am not, however, unmindful of the suggestion I made in my Preface, that a short notice of South Australia at the close of my journal would not be out of place.