For the western colony he had thrown open to settlement the vast area of the north-western coastal territory; and after relieving the Murchison from the stigma of barrenness that rested on it, he had discovered and made known all the rivers to the north and east, until the Oakover was reached.
It is singular that Frank Gregory should, like nearly all explorers, have erred greatly in the deductions he drew.

When forced to turn back from the country beyond the Oakover, he much laments the fact, because, not only had we now attained to within a very few miles of the longitude in which, from various geographical data, there are just grounds for believing that a large river may be found to exist draining central Australia; but the character of the country appeared strongly to indicate the vicinity of such a feature." Of course we now know that no such river drains the centre of Australia.
On the contrary, beyond Gregory's eastern limit there occurs a long stretch of coastline unmarked by the mouth of any river.

Inland, to the southward, the country even in this day is known as the most hostile and repellant desert in Australia, markedly deficient in continuous watercourses.

Providence, then, restrained his footsteps from a land wherein earth and sun seem to unite in hostility against the white intruder.

It is a pity that Frank Gregory did not give his undoubted powers of description free scope in his Journal.