The recent expeditions of discovery into the interior and across the continent of Australia, have excited a deep interest, equally by their important results, and by the loss of the lives of some of the explorers under the most melancholy circumstances. These expeditions, however, constitute but a small link in a long chain of such undertakings, ranging over a period of several hundred years. In fact, it is clear that a southern continent was known to the Romans, and it is difficult to decide how long Australia had been known to the Chinese. But there is evidence that the Portuguese were acquainted with the north-west of Australia before the Dutch, who discovered the north of Australia in 1605. Since then, that is, for 260 years, there has been a succession of voyages of discovery to, and travels of discovery in, Australia. The names of Tasman, Dampier, Captain Cook, La Perouse, D'Entrecasteaux, Flinders, Bass, Oxley, Cunningham, Captains King, Stokes, Fitzroy, &c., Grey, Lushington, Frederick Smith, The Brothers Gregory, Austin, Roe, Babbage, Hack, Warburton, Hume, Sturt, Strzelecki, Sir Thomas Mitchell, Leichhardt, Kennedy, Eyre, Stuart, Burke and Wills, McKinlay, Howitt, Landsborough, Walker, and many others, present to those familiar with their labours and adventures, scenes of danger and of wild romance, of heroic daring and devoted deaths, such as few countries have to show.