PRODUCTION NOTES:--Italics in the book have been changed to to upper case in this eBook.--Footnotes have been placed in brackets [] within the text.--A number of tables have been omitted or rendered incomplete. These are indicated in the eBook at the point at which they occurred in the book.
JOURNALS OF EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY INTO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA
AND OVERLAND FROM ADELAIDE TO KING GEORGE'S SOUND
IN THE YEARS 1840-1:
SENT BY THE COLONISTS OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA,
WITH THE SANCTION AND SUPPORT OF THE GOVERNMENT:
INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ABORIGINES
AND THE STATE OF THEIR RELATIONS WITH EUROPEANS.
by
EDWARD JOHN EYRE
TO LIEUT.-COLONEL GEORGE GAWLER, K.H. M.R.G.S.
UNDER WHOSE AUSPICES, AS GOVERNOR OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA,
THE EXPEDITIONS, DESCRIBED IN THE FOLLOWING PAGES,
WERE UNDERTAKEN, THESE VOLUMES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED,
AS A TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE FOR HIS KINDNESS AND RESPECT FOR HIS VIRTUES,
BY THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
In offering to the public an account of Expeditions of Discovery inAustralia, undertaken in the years 1840-1, and completed in July of thelatter year, some apology may be deemed necessary for this narrative nothaving sooner appeared, or perhaps even for its being now published atall.
With respect to the first, the author would remark that soon after hisreturn to South Australia upon the close of the Expeditions, and whencontemplating an immediate return to England, he was invited by theGovernor of the Colony to remain, and undertake the task ofre-establishing peace and amicable relations with the numerous nativetribes of the Murray River, and its neighbourhood, whose daring andsuccessful outrages in 1841, had caused very great losses to, and createdserious apprehensions among the Colonists.
Hoping that his personal knowledge of and extensive practical experienceamong the Aborigines might prove serviceable in an employment of thisnature, the author consented to undertake it; and from the close ofSeptember 1841, until December 1844, was unremittingly occupied with theduties it entailed. It was consequently not in his power to attend to thepublication of his travels earlier, nor indeed can he regret a delay,which by the facilities it afforded him of acquiring a more intimateknowledge of the character and habits of the Aborigines, has enabled himto render that portion of his work which relates to them morecomprehensive and satisfactory than it otherwise would have been.
With respect to the second point, or the reasons which have led to thiswork being published at all, the author would observe that he has beenled to engage in it rather from a sense of duty, and at the instance ofmany of his friends, than from any wish of his own. The greater portionof the country he explored was of so sterile and worthless a description,and the circumstances which an attempt to cross such a desert region ledto, were of so distressing a character, that he would not willingly haverevived associations, so unsatisfactory and so painful.
It has been his fate, however, to cross, during the course of hisexplorations, a far greater extent of country than any Australiantraveller had ever done previously, and as a very large portion of thishad never before been trodden by the foot of civilized man, and from itsnature is never likely to be so invaded again, it became a duty to recordthe knowledge