Your obedient servant,
(Signed) W.H. NORMAN,
Commander, and Commander-in-Chief of Northern Exploring Expedition to
Gulf of Carpentaria.
W. Landsborough Esquire, Leader of Brisbane party, etc.
...
(COPY.)
H.M.C.S. Victoria, off Albert River, Gulf of Carpentaria, February 6
1862.
Sir,
In reply to your letter of the 20th December 1861, in which you tell me
you do not deem it necessary for me to go on the second expedition I
proposed, namely, to the south-east, as Mr. Walker will no doubt do all
that is possible and not give up following the missing party, I beg to
disagree with you. I think, now that the tracks have been found, that it
is an additional reason for my going on the expedition, and that I will
have a much better chance of being successful in the main object of the
expedition than I had on my last one.
Mr. Walker will not be able probably to follow the tracks of Mr. Burke
and his companions, as too long a time has elapsed since these tracks
were made.
In conclusion I thank you for the sanction you have given me to proceed
on this expedition, especially as I never would have had anything to do
with it had I imagined that I would have been checked in going the way I
now propose; for all along I thought it would be the way where Burke's
tracks were most likely to be found, and more particularly after I
learned from Messrs. Cornish and Buchanan that they had seen what they
believed to be the tracks of Burke's party, about 200 miles to the
westward of Mount Narien.