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 By Eyre, Edward John
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- And Where Shall We Look For The Patient And Persevering
Endurance Of Parry, Of Franklin, And Of Back, In The Northern Regions Of
Eternal Snow?
If, ladies and gentlemen, fame were to wreathe a crown to
the memory of such men, there would not
Be a leaf in it without a name.
The region of discovery was long open to the ambitious, but the energy
and perseverance of man has now left but little to be done in that once
extensive and honourable field. The shores of every continent have been
explored - the centre of every country has been penetrated save that of
Australia - thousands of pounds have been expended in expeditions to the
Poles - but this country, round which a girdle of civilization is forming,
is neglected, and its recesses, whether desert or fertile, are unsought
and unexplored. What is known of the interior is due rather to private
enterprise than to public energy. Here then there is still a field for
the ambitious to tread. Over the centre of this mighty continent there
hangs a veil which the most enterprising might be proud to raise. The
path to it, I would venture to say, is full of difficulty and danger; and
to him who first treads it much will be due. I, who have been as far as
any, have seen danger and difficulty thicken around me as I advanced, and
I cannot but anticipate the same obstacles to the explorer, from whatever
point of these extreme shores he may endeavour to force his way.
Nevertheless, gentlemen, I shall envy that man who shall first plant the
flag of our native country in the centre of our adopted one.
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