\For more than half a century, the connection between Great Britain and
her Australian possessions has been one of growing interest; and men of
the highest eminence have foreseen and foretold the ultimate importance
of that vast continent, within the memory of living man, the roving
savage held precarious though unquestioned empire. Of the Australian
shores, the North-western was the least known, an became, towards the
close of the year 1836, a subject of much geographical speculation.
Former navigators were almost unanimous in believing that the deep bays
known to indent a large portion of this coast, received the waters of
extensive rivers, the discovery of which would not only open a route to
the interior, but afford facilities for colonizing a part of Australia,
so near our East Indian territories, as to render its occupation an
object of evident importance.\ [...] This book, which was published
for the first time in 1846, is the historical story of the HMS Beagle\s
journey to Australia in 1837 to 1843. It includes the journey from
Plymouth to Port Essington, along the northern coast of Australia.