Discoveries in Austraila, with an account of the coasts and rivers explored and surveyed during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle in the years 1837 to 1843, volume 1

First published in 1846. "Of the Australian shores, the North-western was the least known, and 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."