First edition: one of 500 copies printed of the narrative of one of the last great Australian exploring expeditions, written by the leader of the expedition, and complete with its maps.

First edition: one of 500 copies printed of the narrative of one of the last great Australian exploring expeditions, written by the leader of the expedition, and complete with its maps.

Lindsay led this extensive expedition — it ran to eight men, forty-four camels and five Afghan camel drivers — organised by the South Australian Branch of the Royal Geographical Society, and equipped by Sir Thomas Elder, to explore the unknown interior between South Australia and the west coast and to look for Leichhardt. Lindsay's exhaustive report includes the surveyor L.A. Wells's journal of the expedition. Also included is an extensive Aboriginal vocabulary collected by Wells from the Pidong tribe at the head of the Murchison River, the Minninng tribe at Fraser Range, from the Everard Ranges at Mount Illbillee and from the "Wallawe" tribe at Yarragabie Station Western Australia. He states "Appended is a list of native names which I have collected from four tribes met with during the expedition…".

The separate large folding maps are original lithographs coloured to illustrate geological changes. Compiled and drawn by both Lindsay and Wells these maps show in great detail the earlier discoveries of Giles, Gosse, Forrest and Hunt as well as the route taken by the Elder explorers.