84 SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 179»-10O6 This proposal, however, does not seem to have met with any acceptance at the hands of the Government, who were probably too much occupied with the war in which they So^tolf ^^ ^^^^ theJi engaged with France to think of fitting out ex- ploring expeditions to New South Wales. Had the sugges- tion been adopted, it may well be supposed that, although Mungo Park's idea of exploring the interior by sailing up large navigable rivers might not have been realised, he and Flinders together could hardly have failed to anticipate some of the discoveries made in later years. But the plan was more feasible on paper than it would have been found in practice. In that respect it resembles a proposal made by Flinders to Sir Joseph Banks, in a letter written from Wil- helm's Plains in the Isle of France, March 20th, 1806 :— Should a peace speedily arrive, and their lordships of the Admiralty wish to have the N.W. coast of Aiistralia examined A proposal immediately, I will be ready to embark on any ship provided for den. the service that they may chuse to send out. My misfortunes have not abated my ardour in the service of science With five or six asses to carry provisions (and they can be pro- cured here), expeditions might be made into the interior of Aus- tralia from the head of the Gulph of Carpentaria in 18°, and from the head of the Great Gulph on the south coast in 32, until the courses should nearly meet : five hundred miles each way would most probably be sufficient, since the country does not appear to be mountainous ; a view of my general chart will exemplify this. In case of being again sent to Australia, I should much wish that this was a part of my instructions. Perhaps it was a fortunate thing for Flinders that his Ames in the projcct for exploring the interior "with five or six asses to
- ^ carry provisions ^' was not adopted, or the world might have
lost his subsequent contributions to geographical science. But although the idea of exploring Australia in that fashion may provoke a smile, a somewhat similar one was not un- successful in later years. When Captain Grey set out from Hanover Bay in 1837 on his exploring tour in the nortli- Timor west, he took with him twenty-six ponies, for which lie ^^^^' had sent to Timor, Although they were " very small and Digitized by Google
