Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/127

 February 5th, 1831.



I beg leave to state to you, for the information of his Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor, that agreeably to the instructions contained in a letter of the 5th of December last, which his Excellency did me the honour to address to me, I on the 14th of December, accompanied by Mr. Smythe, of the Surveyor General's Department, John Gringer, and John Galway, commenced our journey from Fremantle to King George's Sound. To Mr. Smythe was entrusted the direction of our route. I understood he had been furnished with all that was requisite from the office, to enable him to do so. I shall take as rapid a sketch as possible of our route, remarking merely what I consider main features on it, begging leave to refer his Excellency to my journal for details, and also to the plan which Mr. Smythe will furnish. I have not attempted to give any details of the mineralogical or botanical productions of the country, as, even if I were capable, it would be impossible, except by accident, to come to any sound opinion on the former, and the latter would have required more time than we had to bestow. I have confined myself simply to the nature of the land, the timber upon on it, and the rivers, &c. flowing through it, together with the bearings of a few remarkable hills. As to the trees, I have used such terms as are generally known in the colony,