EYRE, Edward John, English explorer
and colonial governor: b. Yorkshire, 5 Aug. 1815; d. Tavistock, Devonshire, 30 Nov. 1901. He went to Australia in 1833; in 1839 discovered Lake Torrens, and in 1840 explored its eastern shores and the adjacent Flinders Range. He then commenced his perilous journey along the shores of the Great Australian Bight, and reached King George's Sound, in western Australia, a distance of 1,200 miles, accompanied by
a single native boy, having left Adelaide more
than a year before. In 1845 he published
‘Expeditions into Central Australia.’ After filling
several governorships he was appointed governor
of Jamaica in 1862. In 1865 he was
confronted with a negro rebellion which he crushed
with some severity, and was recalled. On his
return to England John Stuart Mill and others
took measures to have him indicted for murder, but failed. In regard to this question Carlyle was one of his most strenuous defenders.