Produced by Amy Zelmer [Errors in the original have been preserved and noted at the end of this etext.] [Plate: F. & A. JARDINE. Black and white photograph.] NARRATIVE OF THE OVERLAND EXPEDITION OF THE MESSRS. JARDINE, FROM ROCKHAMPTON TO CAPE YORK, NORTHERN QUEENSLAND. COMPILED FROM THE JOURNALS OF THE BROTHERS, AND EDITED BY FREDERICK J. BYERLEY, (ENGINEER OF ROADS, NORTHERN DIVISION OF QUEENSLAND). BRISBANE PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY J. W. BUXTON, BOOKSELLER AND STATIONER. 1867. TO SIR CHARLES NICHOLSON, BART., CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, etc., etc., etc., AS ONE OF OUR OLDEST AND MOST DISTINGUISHED COLONISTS. THE NARRATIVE IS INSCRIBED WITH GREAT RESPECT, BY THE EDITOR. PREFACE. THE Settlement of Northern Australia has of late years been of such rapid growth as to furnish matter for a collection of narratives, which in the aggregate would make a large and interesting volume. Prominent amongst these stands that of the Settlement of Cape York, under the superintendence of Mr. Jardine, with which the gallant trip of his two sons overland must ever be associated. It was a journey which, but for the character and qualities of the Leader, might have terminated as disastrously as that of his unfortunate, but no less gallant predecessor, Kennedy. A brilliant achievement in exploration, in a colony where exploring has become common and almost devoid of interest, from the number of those yearly engaged in it, its very success has prevented its attracting that share of public attention to which its results very fully entitled it. Had it been attended with any signal disaster, involving loss of life, it would have been otherwise. Geographically, it has solved the question hitherto undecided of the course of the northern rivers emptying into the Gulf of Carpentaria, of which nothing was previously known but their outlets, taken from the charts of the Dutch Navigators. It has also made known, with tolerable definiteness, how much, or rather, how little, of the "York Peninsula" is adapted for pastoral occupation, whilst its success in taking the first stock overland, and forming a cattle station at Newcastle Bay, has insured to the Settlement at Somerset a necessary and welcome supply of fresh meat, and done away with its dependence for supplies on importations by sea of less nourishing salt provision.