be navigated with that safety which ought to distinguish the high roadbetween England and Sydney . The charts of the passage throughTorres Strait , by the inner route, have been improved, and a safechannel discovered through Endeavour Strait: while anchorages—especially at Western and Southern Australia —now correctly laiddown, and doubtful positions finally assigned, prove that in theunpretending though important duties of surveying, the officers of theExpedition failed not to do justice to the cause wherein they wereengaged.
Notices of Tenerife, San Salvador, the Brazils, the Cape of GoodHope, the Mauritius, its Hurricanes , and the numerous Islands, Waters,and Lands of Australia, now first discovered and described, will be foundin the earlier portions of the work, and an account of the interestingvisits of II.M.S. Britomart, to the islands in the Arafura Sea, preparedby Captain Owen Stanley, in the latter part.
In an age fertile beyond all precedent in contributions to the storesof geographical knowledge, it seems desirable that some authenticaccount should be prepared to record the details of a Voyage of Disco-very and Survey, performed under the protection of the flag of GreatBritain .
For a period of nearly three hundred years England has been pre-eminent for the grandeur and success of her naval discoveries; and along line of illustrious examples, in which the names of Cabot, Drake,Raleigh , Darnpier, Anson, Cook, Byron, Vancouver, Flinders, Parry,Franklin, and others, are to be found, attest that in each succeedinggeneration there have arisen men, willing, at all hazards, to sustain thereputation of that noble service from which they derived, and to whichthey bequeathed, and owe their glory !
And though the present cannot emulate the great achievements ofthe past—though the adventurous wanderer may no longer hope togive his name to a new continent, or pass through unknown seas,from shore to shore—though not for him are reserved the strikingtriumphs of an earlier time—there are still rich prizes within hisreach to tempt him onward !
In the voyage which this work is intended to describe, much newand valuable information has been collected, new coasts have beenvisited—new scenes described—new countries explored. Fruitful inincident, it abounds in materials for thought. Amid the wilds ofAustralia the advancing footsteps of Christian civilization have markedthe outlines of that wider and more beaten road, by wliidh their furtherprogress, and final triumph will be effected; while in the lonelysolitudes, which the occasional visit of the roving savage serves but tomake more desolate,—the first echoes of our language,—the firstofferings of our faith,—have attested that the dawn is at hand—thatthe day is coming which shall give another, and an English empire, tothe annals of the world !
Each circumstance of that eventful history ought, as it transpires,-to be recorded, and an account will be here attempted of that Expedi-tion which penetrated so far towards the interior of this great Conti-nent, discovering some of the largest rivers yet known to water itsfar-spread forests and extensive plains ; in the belief that the intrinsicimportance of the subject will more than atone for any want ofexperience in the art of narration.