Eyre had not discovered any rivers, although it was possible that he might have crossed the sand-bars of rivers in the night.

The difficulties he laboured under in his almost solitary journey, and the sufferings he endured, might have rendered him unable to make observations and discoveries more practicable to a better equipped and stronger party, while the deficiency of water on the route appeared to offer the greatest impediment.

We were not, however, deterred from the attempt, and on the 30th of March, 1870, we started from Perth on a journey which all knew to be dangerous, but which we were sanguine enough to believe might produce considerable results.
That we were not disappointed the result will prove.

Indeed, the difficulties were much fewer than we had been prepared to encounter; and in five months from the date of departure from Perth we arrived safely at Adelaide, completing a journey which Mr.Eyre had been more than twelve months in accomplishing.
THE EXPLORING PARTY.
My party was thus composed: I was leader; the second in command was my brother, Alexander Forrest, a surveyor; H.McLarty, a police constable; and W.Osborne, a farrier and shoeing smith, these with Tommy Windich, the native who had served me so faithfully on the previous expedition, and another native, Billy Noongale, an intelligent young fellow, accompanied us.
Before I enter upon the details of my journey it may be useful to state as briefly as possible the efforts made to obtain a better acquaintance with the vast territory popularly known as No Man's Land, which had been traversed by Eyre, and afterwards to summarize the little knowledge which had been obtained.
In 1860 Major Warburton--who afterwards, in 1873 and 1874, succeeded in crossing the northern part of the great inland desert, after enduring great privations--contrived to reach eighty-five miles beyond the head of the Bight, and made several journeys from the coast in a north and north-westerly direction for a distance of about sixty miles.

Traces of Eyre's expedition were then visible.