"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.