The Only Merit To Which He Can Lay Claim, Is That Of Having Faithfully Described What He Saw, And The Impressions Which Were Produced Upon Him At The Time.

In other respects it is feared that a work, which was entirely (and consequently very hastily) prepared for the press from the original notes, whilst voyaging from Australia to England, must necessarily be crude and imperfect.

Where the principal object, however, was rather to record with accuracy than indulge in theory or conjecture, and where a simple statement of occurrences has been more attended to than the language in which they are narrated, plainness and fidelity will, it is hoped, be considered as some compensation for the absence of the embellishments of a more finished style, or a studied composition, and especially as the uncertainty attending the duration of the author's visit to England made it a matter of anxious consideration to hurry these volumes through the press as rapidly as possible. There is one circumstance to which he wishes particularly to allude, as accounting for the very scanty notices he is now able to give of the geology or botany of the country through which he travelled; it is the loss of all the specimens that were collected during the earlier part of the Expedition, which occurred after they had been sent to Adelaide; this loss has been irreparable, and has not only prevented him from ascertaining points about which he was dubious, but has entirely precluded him from having the subjects considered, or the specimens classified and arranged by gentlemen of scientific acquirements in those departments of knowledge, in which the author is conscious he is himself defective.

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