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 668 far-sighted men speculated on the probability of the commerce of New South Wales being at some future time entirely diverted into that channel, to the special advantage of the younger colony. It will be evident on glancing at the map that, as all the streams westward of the mountain chain are affluents of the Murray, the natural outlet for the produce of nine-tenths of the colony of New South Wales is that seaport of South Australia nearest to its mouth. Now, as the value of produce to the producer depends on the cost of transportation to a market, the agriculturist or grazier of that section of New South Wales west of the mountain range, though 1200 or 1400 miles by water from South Australia, is practically much nearer to the markets of that colony than to Sydney, which is but 300 or 400 miles distant; and were Sydney the only market open to him, the value of his produce would decrease with increase of the distance, till it would be unremunerative to send it there at all.

In 1840, it was ascertained that the mouth of the Murray was not, as at first supposed, absolutely inaccessible, but local conditions seemed unfavourable to any hopes of its ever being commercially useful. The channel connecting the lake whereinto the river expands, with the sea, is choked up by a bar: and this is impassable by other than boats, except when the depth of water is increased by the coincidence of a flood-tide with a flooded condition of the river, and then a very dangerous surf arises from the contest between the tide and the rapid current. The entrance of the river is rendered yet more difficult by the swell ordinarily setting into Encounter Bay, the waves rising all along the coast to the height of fifteen and eighteen feet before breaking; and this turmoil of the ocean only ceases in summer, when a north wind has prevailed for several days. These seemingly insuperable obstacles discouraged attempts to open the navigation of the river for some years after its importance had been recognised; but in 1850, Sir H. Young, the Governor of South Australia, conceived the idea of evading the difficulty arising from the bar by connecting the lake with the sea by canal or railway; so that the produce of the interior, coming down the river, might be conveyed overland from Goolwa, the lake terminus of the channel, to Port Elliott in Encounter Bay for shipment; the distance between the two points being only seven miles. Feasible as this scheme was, it was not favourably received by the citizens of Adelaide; who, finding their private advantage in the existing state of things, and apprehending that their city would suffer were the agricultural produce of the vast region drained by the Murray to find its outlet at Port Elliott instead of by a long and costly land carriage at Adelaide, obstinately opposed the Governor’s plan. Assured of the necessity of providing a direct outlet for the trade of the valley of the Murray, Sir H. Young did not, however, lose sight of the subject; and, at his instance, the Colonial Legislature in 1851 voted large rewards for the navigation of the River Murray under certain conditions; and these were subsequently modified so as to favour colonial enterprise as follows: 500l. to the first steam-vessel crossing the bar; 1000l. additional provided the Darling was attained; and 1000l. additional for the completion of six voyages between fixed points within a year. The solution of the problem could not be longer deferred, and one came forward to solve it who, though a stranger, was by the bent of his genius specially interested in this as a geographical question, and was by mental character and professional pursuits peculiarly qualified to determine it.

Francis Cadell, the descendant of a good Scottish family, was born in February, 1822, at Cockenzie, near Preston Pans, a place of historical note. He was educated in Edinburgh and Germany, but, as is usually the case with those fitted rather for active pursuits than indolent contemplation, his scholastic career was brief; and it may be inferred that a taste for perilous enterprises was fostered in him, as in other boys who take to water as naturally as a duckling, by those narratives of maritime adventure that delighted our own childhood; for when but fourteen years of age he adopted the profession for which his bold and energetic character adapted him, and made his first voyage as a middy in an East Indiaman. This vessel being subsequently chartered by Government as a transport, the lad took an active part in the first Chinese war, being present at the siege of Canton, the capture of Amoy, Ningpo, &c., and winning honour as well as prize-money. When only twenty-two he attained the command of a ship, but he did not intermit his exertions; and, far from being content with the moderate acquirements that masters of merchant vessels are ordinarily satisfied with, he devoted the intervals between his voyages to attaining a practical knowledge of shipbuilding and of the construction of the marine steam-engine in the ship-yards of the Tyne and the workshops of the Clyde. His professional pursuits and his intellectual tastes specially interesting him in geographical questions, he was, when at Para, so impressed by the majesty and mystery of the Amazon, as to be led to speculate on the means of developing the resources of the vast region that it drains; and his vague ideas assumed the form of a scheme for descending the river from its sources amid the Andes, which from lack of encouragement he did not carry into execution.

Arriving in Australia in 1848, and his attention being directed to the navigation of the Murray, then uppermost in the Colonial mind, he carefully examined its mouth and satisfied himself of its practicability. In consequence of this he returned to Australia in 1850 in a ship of his own, and being encouraged thereto by Sir H. Young, immediately set about determining this important question, looking rather to the honour than to any pecuniary reward that might accrue to him; for the sum offered by the Legislature was not only very incommensurate to the service required, but was contingent on success: all the risk and outlay, contrary to the ordinary procedure of Government in such cases, being in case of failure thrown upon the spirited adventurer. After again examining the ever-shifting bar, and when so employed he nearly lost his life by the capsising of his whale-boat (in making a similar attempt in 1839, Captain Blenkinsop and Sir John Jeffries both met