THE AUSTRALIAN EXPLORERS THEIR LABOURS, PERILS, AND ACHIEVEMENTS BEING A NARRATIVE OF DISCOVERY FROM THE LANDING OF CAPTAIN COOK TO THE CENTENNIAL YEAR BY GEORGE GRIMM, M.A. MINISTER OF ST. PAUL'S, BALMAIN WEST, SYDNEY; AND TUTOR IN APOLOGETICS AND SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY TO THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NEW SOUTH WALES GEORGE ROBERTSON & COMPANY MELBOURNE AND SYDNEY 1888 TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE JOHN DUNMORE LANG, D.D. IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF MUCH PLEASANT INTERCOURSE THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED PREFACE. The story of the exploration of Australia is one which we cannot willingly let die. There are many reasons for keeping alive the remembrance of such heroic deeds. It is due to the memory of those men who took their lives in their hands, and, in many cases, laid their bones in the desert; it is an act of gratitude on our part, who have entered on their labours; and it is a kind of information indispensable to every Australian who desires to know the history of his country. And yet there is great danger of their being practically forgotten. The time when the harvest of discovery was reaped has faded into the past, and a generation is growing up not well informed on these most interesting adventures and achievements. Nor are the sources of information easily obtainable by those who purposely put themselves on the search. The journals of the explorers, never too plentiful, have now become scarce. They are only occasionally met with in private hands, where they are, for good reasons, held as a treasure. A considerable number of these works are to be found in the Sydney School of Arts, but they have been withdrawn from circulation, and are now kept for special reference only, in a glass case, under lock and key. The Government Library contains the best collection extant, but even there it has been deemed necessary to adopt restrictive regulations, with the view of giving the books a longer lease of existence. This scarcity of the sources of information, and these restrictions which fence in the few that remain, may be accepted as a sufficient plea for the effort here made to popularize the knowledge they contain. But I would warn the reader not to expect from this small volume what it does not profess to give. In no sense does it pretend to be elaborate or exhaustive. I have had to study brevity for another reason than its being the soul of wit. It would have been a pleasant task to write long descriptions of Australian scenery, and to follow the explorers even into the by-paths of their journeys; but the result would have been just what I have had to avoid--a bulky volume. Yet, such as it is, I hope the book will be found acceptable to the man of business, who can neither afford to be ignorant of this subject nor find time to enter into its minutiæ; to the youth of our country, who cannot obtain access to the original sources; and to the general reader,