Discoveries in Australia: With an Account of the Hitherto Unknown Coasts Surveyed during the Voyage of the HMS Beagle, between the Years 1837 and 1843

John Lort Stokes (1812–85) was a naval officer on board H.M.S. Beagle – the same ship that had carried naturalist Charles Darwin around the world in 1831–6. Stokes served on that expedition and on the following commission, which was a survey of Australia in which the crew was charged with discovering more about the largely unknown land mass. The expedition set off in 1837 and Stokes did not return to England until 1843 – after 18 years of service on the Beagle – when he began work on this t...