Stringy bark trees were seen most generally on barren ridges, the larger sized blue gums in the valleys.  In the evening the weather was unsettled with flying showers.

August 29.—­At eight o’clock we proceeded towards Bathurst, hoping to reach it by the evening; this we effected between eight and nine o’clock, passing over a very hilly country with numerous running streams, joining the river near Pine Hill, and afterwards keeping along its banks.

The hospitable reception which we met with from Mr. Cox went far to banish all present care from our minds:  relieved, as they were, by the knowledge that our friends were well, we almost forgot in the hilarity of the moment, that nineteen harassing weeks had elapsed since we last quitted it.

Although the winter at Bathurst, we learnt, had been cold and severe, there had not been much rain; little or none had fallen in the depot on the Lachlan, although the people there had observed some very high floods in the river; one particularly that would nearly correspond with the time when an unexpected fresh surprised us on our return down the Lachlan on the 11th of July.

JOURNAL OF AN EXPEDITION IN AUSTRALIA

PART II

—­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.

This journal
is most respectfully inscribed,
by his very faithful and obliged
humble servant,
the author.

Sydney, New South Wales,
July 21, 1819.

PREFACE.

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 fitting out a second expedition, which should have the elucidation of this point for its principal object.  This expedition was also entrusted to my direction.  I had scarcely a doubt of ultimate success, and set out with a confidence which nothing short of ocular demonstration could destroy.  The result of our voyage down the Macquarie River, and the conjectures which naturally arose in my mind founded upon observations of its apparent termination, together with our subsequent journey to the east coast, will be found in the following pages.