before him, the first white man to look upon the scene, lay the
open way to two thousand miles of fair pasture-lands and brooding
desert-wastes -- of limitless plains and boundless rolling downs -- of
open grassy forests and barren scrubs -- of solitary mountain peaks and
sluggish rivers; and, though then hidden from even the most brilliant
imagination, the wondrous potentialities latent in that silent and
untrodden region. If a vision of the future had been vouchsafed
Deputy-Surveyor Evans as he stood and gazed -- a vision of all that would
cover the spacious lands before and beyond him before one hundred years
had passed away -- the entry he made in his diary would surely have
reflected in its style his flight of imagination. Instead, we have the
prosaic statement:--

"I came to a very high mount, when I was much pleased with the sight
westward. I think I can see 40 miles which had the look of open country."

In a pleasant valley, he came upon a large "riverlett," and on its banks
they camped. There they shot ducks and caught "trout" -- as he called the
Murray Cod -- the first of the species to tickle the palate of a white
man; fine specimens, too, weighing five and six pounds. As he proceeded
further and further, he became enchanted with the scenery: "The
handsomest I have yet seen, with gently-rising hills and dales
well-watered" -- and he finally notes that language failed him to
describe it adequately.

Evans named the river that led him through this veritable land of promise
the Fish River, and a river which joined its waters with it from the
south he called the Campbell River. The united stream he christened, as
in duty bound, the Macquarie. Unimpeded in his course, he followed the
Macquarie until he was 98 1/2 measured miles -- for they had been
chaining since passing the limit of the first explorers -- from the
termination of Blaxland's journey. He then decided to return; for he had
gained all the information he had been sent to seek; and though game was
plentiful, his party were without shoes, and the horses were suffering
from sore backs.

Thus was concluded in a most satisfactory manner the first journey of
exploration into the interior. Evans constantly saw, during his progress,
unmistakeable traces of the natives; but he interviewed only a small
party of five. This representative band of the inland aborigines of
Australia was composed of two lubras and some picaninnies, both the women
being blind of t