It Is Needless For Me To Recall To The Recollection Of Those Around Me, The Circumstances Under Which The Project Of Undertaking An Overland Journey To Port Essington Was Formed.

The smallness of your party, and the scantiness of its equipment, the length and unknown character of the country proposed to be traversed, induced many to regard the scheme as one characterised by rashness, and the means employed as wholly inadequate towards carrying out the object in view.

Many withheld their support from a dread lest they might be held as chargeable with that result which their sinister forebodings told them was all but inevitable with a small but adventurous band. You nevertheless plunged into the unknown regions that lay before you. After the lapse of a few months without any tidings of your progress or fate, the notion became generally entertained that your party had fallen victims to some one of the many dangers it had been your lot to encounter; that you had perished by the hands of the hostile natives of the interior; that want of water or exposure to tropical climate were even but a few of the many evils to which you had rendered yourself liable, and to the influence of some one or more of which it was but too probable you had fallen a prey. Two parties successively went out with the hope of overtaking you, or at least of ascertaining some particulars of your fate. The result of these efforts was, however, fruitless, and but few were so sanguine as to believe in the possibility of you or your comrades being still in existence. I need not recall to the recollection of those here present, the surprise, the enthusiasm, and the delight, with which your sudden appearance in Sydney was hailed, about six months ago. The surprise was about equal to what might be felt at seeing one who had risen from the tomb; a surprise, however, that was equalled by the warm and cordial welcome with which you were embraced by every colonist; and when we listened to the narrative of your long and dreary journey - the hardships you had endured, the dangers you had braved, the difficulties you had surmounted - the feeling with which your return amongst us was greeted, became one of universal enthusiasm. For it would indeed be difficult to point out, in the career of any traveller, the accomplishment of an equally arduous undertaking, or one pregnant with more important results, whether we contemplate them in a scientific, an economical, or a political point of view. The traversing, for the first time by civilised man, of so large a portion of the surface of this island, could not fail to be attended with many discoveries deeply interesting to the scientific inquirer, in botany, geology, and zoology. Your contributions to each of these departments of knowledge have consequently been equally novel and valuable. In a social and economical point of view, it is difficult, if not impossible, to over-estimate the importance of the discovery recently made of an all but boundless extent of fertile country, extending to the north, soon to be covered with countless flocks and herds, and calculated to become the abode of civilized man. In its political aspect, the possession of an immense territory, now for the first time discovered to be replete with all those gifts of nature which are necessary for the establishment and growth of a civilized community, cannot be regarded as a fact of small importance; nor the possession of a continuous tract of fine and fertile land, that connects us with the shores of the Indian ocean, and which would appear to render the Australian continent a mere extension of the Anglo-Indian empire as a matter of indifference. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of these considerations; I shall, however, abstain from occupying your time by dwelling upon what must be so obvious to all. The Colonists of New South Wales, Dr. Leichhardt, have been anxious to evince their gratitude to you for all that you have done in behalf of this their adopted country. As soon as your return was announced, subscriptions were entered into for the purpose of presenting to you a suitable testimonial. To the fund raised for this purpose persons of all classes, and from every quarter of the colony, have contributed. The sum that has been raised amounts to 1518 pounds 18 shillings 6 pence. The Executive, with a laudable emulation, have presented you a sum of 1000 pounds from the Crown revenue. Gratifying as this demonstration must doubtlessly prove to your feelings, it is unquestionably beneath your deserts; and the substantial reward due to your past exertions will be found in the undying glory of having your name enrolled amongst those of the great men whose genius and enterprise have impelled them to seek for fame in the prosecution of geographical science - with those of Niebuhr, Burckhardt, Park, Clapperton, Lander, and, in Australian geography, with those of Oxley, Cunningham, Sturt, Eyre, and Mitchell. In these days of universal knowledge, when there are so many competitors for distinction in every department of science, few attain the desired goal of scientific eminence. Perhaps no one has so fair a chance of giving immortality to his name as he who has first planted his foot where civilized man had never before trodden. The first chapter in the history of Australia, some thousand years hence, will present a narration of those adventurous spirits - of the exploits of those who may fairly be considered its first conquerors, and by whose peaceful triumphs an empire had been added to the parent state. I cannot close this brief address without indulging in an aspiration for the safety and success of one now engaged in an enterprise similar to that from which you hate earned so much honour. I allude to Sir T. Mitchell. To enter upon any eulogium of the character or abilities of that distinguished officer on the present occasion, is uncalled for; the enterprise in which he is engaged must command the sympathy of every person here present, and I am sure of no one more than of yourself.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 138 of 139
Words from 139685 to 140719 of 141354