Russell's work in opening up so much available country, is a fair sample
of the private explorations before referred to, which fill up such a
large space of the record of discovery, and yet have received so little
recognition that the remembrance of most of them has been quite lost, or
preserved in such a way as to be hardly looked upon as reliable history.
We are now approaching a period when the exploration of the continent was
an object of absorbing interest to all the settlements fast growing into
importance on the southern and eastern coasts. Three explorers, who may
be classed as the greatest, the most successful, and the one whose star
that rose so bright at this time was doomed to set in misfortune, were in
the field at the same time. Charles Sturt, fated once more to meet and be
defeated (if such a gallant struggle can be called defeat) by the
inexorable desert and the stern denial of its climate. Thomas Mitchell,
again the favoured of fortune, to wend his way by well-watered streams
and grassy downs and plains. And Ludwig Leichhardt, to accomplish his one
great journey through the country permeated by the rivers of the eastern
and northern coast.
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