The History of Australian Exploration

Chapter IX

[Across the continent, from south to north--M'Dowall Stuart's first attempt to reach the north coast--Native warfare--Chambers' Pillar-- Central Mount Stuart--Singular footprint--Sufferings from thirst-- Aboriginal Freemasons--Attack Creek--Return--Stuart's second departure-- The Victorian expedition--Costly equipment--Selection of a leader--Burke, and his qualifications for the post--Wills--Resignation of Landells-- Wright left in charge of the main party--Burke and Wills, with six men, push on to Cooper's Creek--Delay of Wright--Burke's final determination to push on to the north coast--Starts with Wills and two men--Progress across the continent--Arrival at the salt water--Wills' account--Homeward journey--The depôt deserted--Resolve to make for Mount Hopeless--Failure and return--Wills revisits the depôt--Kindness of the natives--Burke and King start in search of the blacks--Death of Burke--King finds Wills dead on his return--Wright and Brahe visit the depôt--Fail to see traces of Burke's return--Consternation in Melbourne--Immediate dispatch of search parties--Howitt finds King--Narrow escape of trooper Lyons--Stuart in the north--Hedgewood scrub first seen--Discovery of Newcastle waters--All attempts to the north fruitless--Return of Stuart.]

An extraordinary craze had seized on the imaginations of the southern colonies to send out expeditions to strive to be the first to cross the continent from the southern shore to the northern one. The South Australian Government had for a time a standing reward of £10,000 offered for the man who should accomplish this gigantic task with private means.

M'Dowall Stuart has been recognised as the one to whom most honour is due for successfully spanning the gap, and there are many reasons for awarding the chief praise to him. He was the first to attempt the feat, and although he was not the first to reach salt water on the north, he was the first to sight the open sea, and actually cross from sea to sea. Nor in so doing was he aided by the former successes of other explorers. He also was the one who crossed fairly in the centre of Australia, and his track extends further north, as the others made for the southern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria, while Stuart came out at the head of Arnhem's Land.

Burke and Wills were, according to the journal of Wills, at the northern coast in February, 1861, so they could claim the honour of first crossing; next came M'Kinlay, in May, 1862. Landsborough reached the Darling from the north in June of the same year, and then Stuart on the north coast comes but a few weeks afterwards in July. On Stuart's track however, has been built the overland telegraph line, an enduring monument to his indomitable perseverance. His was but a small party when he started to reach the spot so ardently longed for by his former leader Sturt. Less than a handful of men, three in all, with thirteen horses, left on this eventful trip, a strange company to contrast with the princely cavalcade that a few months later was to leave Melbourne on a like journey.

The starting point was from Chambers' Creek, but naturally from here their course for a time was over much-trodden ground.

At Beresford Springs there were unmistakable traces of recent native warfare. Lying on his back was the corpse of a tall native, the skull broken, and both feet and hands missing. Near the place was a handful of human hair, and some emu feathers, placed between two charred pieces of wood, as a sign or token of some sort, but nothing to be interpreted by the whites as to the meaning of this strange neglect of burial rites, so unusual amongst the aborigines.

After passing the Neale, the little band commenced their march into the unknown. Their journey was, for the most part, through good pastoral country, crossing numerous well-watered creeks, which they named, respectively, the Frew, the Fincke, and the Stevenson, and on the 6th they reached a remarkable hill, which they had observed for some time. It proved to be a pillar of sandstone on a hill about one hundred feet high. The pillar itself, in addition, is one hundred and fifty feet in height, and twenty feet in width. Stuart christened it Chambers' Pillar. This freak of nature was surrounded by numerous other remarkable bills, resembling ruined castles.

Passing through a range, which was called the Waterhouse Range, and again striking a creek, christened the Hugh, they made for one of two remarkable bluffs, first sighted on the 9th of April, and reached the range of which these two bluff cliffs formed the centre on the 12th. This was the highest range Stuart had yet found, and he named it MacDonnell Range, after the then Governor of South Australia; the east bluff was called Brinkley Bluff and the west one Hanson Bluff. Crossing this range, which, although rough, was very well-grassed, the party got among spinifex and scrub, and, after being two nights without water, made for a high peak in the distance (Mount Freeling), where they found a small supply.

It was evident that they had now reached the limit of the rainfall, and were trespassing on dry country.

A search for permanent water was made before going on, and a large reservoir found in a ledge of rocks, that promised to supply their wants on their return.

On the 22nd of April, Stuart camped in the centre of Australia, and one of his hopes was accomplished; about two miles and a-half to the N.N.E. was a tolerable high mount, which he called Central Mount Stuart. The next morning, with his tried companion, Kekwick, he climbed this mount, and on the top erected a cairn of stones, and hoisted the Union Jack. What must have been his thoughts at having, with such a feeble party, so comparatively easily accomplished what others had striven in vain for? Surely he must have thought with regret that his old leader, dauntless Sturt, was not standing beside him.

The first night after leaving Mount Stuart, they camped without water, and the next day found a permanent supply under a high peak, which he called Mount Leichhardt; and while mentioning this fact, he notices that he has found no trace of that explorer having ever passed to the westward.

On the first of May they came to a small gum creek, which Stuart called the Fisher, and in which the only water they could get was in a native well. Crossing this creek they got into a dead level country, covered with spinifex and stunted gum trees. Here they came across the track of a blackfellow which differed considerably from the ordinary mark made by the foot of a native:--

"The spinifex in many places has been burnt, and the track of the native was peculiar-not broad and flat as they generally are, but long and narrow, with a deep hollow in the foot, and the large toe projecting a good deal; in some respects more like the print of a white man than a native. Had I crossed it the day before, I would have followed it. My horses are now suffering too much from the want of water to allow me to do so. If I did, and we were not to find water to-night, I should lose the whole of the horses and our lives into the bargain."

As it was, they had a hard struggle to get back to the native well at the Fisher.

After a week's interval Stuart tried again to the' east of north, but found things no better; mulga scrub and spinifex again surrounded them, and after travelling twenty-seven miles they had to camp without water. The next day was the same, Stuart getting a nasty fall, being pulled off by some scrub and dragged for a short distance. There was nothing for it but to retreat once more. Scurvy had now laid its hand upon the leader, and he began to suffer severely.

After much trouble and delay, Stuart, by working to the eastward, at last got forward again, and on the 1st of June found a large creek, the best he had yet seen, which he called the Bonney, and on the second of the month reached the range christened by him the Murchison Range. On the 6th he came to a gum creek, which he called Tennant's Creek, destined to be the site of one of the telegraph stations of the overland line. He now made an effort to the west of north to reach the head waters of the Victoria, and got into a dry strip of country that nearly put an end to the expedition. When they at last, with some losses, got the horses back to water, the animals had travelled one hundred and twelve miles, and been one hundred and one hours without a drink. Some of them had gone mad. "Thus," says Stuart, "ends my last attempt, at present, to make the Victoria River. Three times I have tried it, and been forced to retreat."

After many days' rest, he started again, this time to the eastward of north, and in ten miles came to a well-watered creek, which he named Phillips' Creek. Once more he had another two or three days of useless efforts to force his way through a dry belt, vainly flattering himself that he was approaching the watershed of the Gulf; but had to fall back on the Phillips again. Whilst camping here some natives visited them, two of them wearing a kind of helmet made of net work and feathers, tightly bound together:--

"One was an old man, and seemed to be the father of these two fine young men. He was very talkative, but I could make nothing of him. I have endeavoured, by signs, to get information from him as to where the next water is, but we cannot understand each other. After some time, and having conferred with his two sons, he turned round, and surprised me by giving me one of the Masonic signs. I looked at him steadily; he repeated it; and so did his two sons. I then returned it, which seemed to please them much, the old man patting me on the shoulder and stroking down my beard."

Whether Stuart's imagination here led him astray, it is impossible to say, but very shortly afterwards they encountered a tribe who displayed anything but the friendly feelings that should have been shown by brother masons.

On the next start they came in fourteen miles to a large gum creek, with very fair-sized sheets of water in it, and as they followed it down they passed the encampment of some natives, but did not take any notice of them, keeping steadily on their course. Finding no water lower down the creek, they had to return. When close to the place where they crossed the creek in the morning, and the evening rapidly closing in, they were suddenly surrounded by a number of well-armed natives, who started out of a scrub they were passing through. All signs of friendship, masonic or otherwise, were thrown away on them, and at last, after receiving two or three showers of boomerangs and waddies they had to turn and fire on them. So bold and determined were they in their attack upon the three men, that Stuart had to return to his camp of the night before still followed by them. Here he had to make up his mind to abandon his further progress for the present. He had too small a party to stand a pitched battle with the aboriginal proprietors; the water behind them was failing, and they had suffered considerable loss in their horses. Most wisely Stuart determined to return.

On the 27th June he commenced his retreat. On reaching the Bonney he halted for a few days, during which time the cloudy aspect of the sky made him entertain the idea of another effort to reach the Victoria River; but no rain fell, and he had to keep on his way. On the 26th of August the party arrived at Mr. Brodie's camp at Hamilton Springs, all of them very weak and reduced.

After the result of Stuart's expedition had been reported in Adelaide, and it was seen how inadequate means alone had led to the retreat of the explorer, the Government voted £2,500 to equip a larger and better-organized party, of which he was to take command. Meanwhile, such a report of the results of the journey as the Government thought might prove useful to the leaders of the Victorian expedition, then on the march, was forwarded, but, as will be seen, shared the same chapter of accidents that beset that unfortunate expedition, and never reached them.

This time Stuart's party numbered at the final start, ten men and forty-seven horses; and by the end of January, 1861, they were fairly on their way outside the settled districts, and here we must leave them to turn to that other expedition, the issue of which attracted so much attention throughout the world.

Public opinion is notably fickle, and never more so than when dealing with the memories of distinguished men. No guide, no standard is followed in the matter; the recognition of their services is made solely a matter of sentiment.

Poor Kennedy, who, confronted with almost insurmountable difficulties, harassed by hostile natives, and ill-provisioned at the start, lost his life, and the majority of his party, in a gallant effort to fulfil his task, is almost forgotten, save by the few who take an interest in the history of our country. Whilst Burke--who left the settlements, equipped with everything that a generous people could provide, and that the experience of others could suggest, to make the journey safe and ensure its success--travelled through a country that is now a vast sheep and cattle walk; and frittered away his magnificent resources, wantonly sacrificing his own life and those of his men, is elevated into a hero. It may truly be said that for the fate of the two leaders, the mistakes of others must be greatly held accountable; but at the same time it must be also kept strongly in view that, for the want of judgment that placed Burke in such a position that the mistake of a subordinate could entail such fatal results, he alone was responsible.

The action of Victoria in sending out the expedition of discovery under Burke and Wills, was, without doubt, exceptional in the annals of exploration; it was an instance of a public body emulating the generous act of a private individual. The colony itself had no territory left to explore. Her rich and compact little province was known from end to end, and it was not with her, as with others, a case of necessity to send her sons into the wilderness, to open fresh fields for emigration.

Whatever then was the upshot of the expedition, and whatever the guilty mismanagement attaching to its progress, the colony must ever look back with pride upon the noble and unselfish motives that prompted its inauguration.

Without counting the cost of the relief parties, seven lives were laid down, and over £12,000 expended, and it was all cheerfully rendered; and Victoria, in her one expedition, had the satisfaction of knowing that her representatives carried off the coveted prize, and were the first to cross the continent from south to north.

The money for the expenses was subscribed as follows:-- £6,000 voted by Government, £1,000 subscribed by Mr. Ambrose Kyte, and the balance of the £12,000 made up by public subscription.

The outfit was on a most lavish scale; camels were imported from Peshawar, with native drivers; provisions and stores for twelve months provided, and no expense spared to render the whole appointments the most complete ever provided for an exploring expedition. When the party was organised, it consisted of the leader, R. O'Hara Burke; second in command, G. J. Landells, who had brought the camels from India; third, W. J. Wills, astronomical and meteorological observer., Dr. Hermann Beckler, medical officer and botanist; Dr. Ludwig Becker, artist, naturalist, and geologist; ten white men, and three camel drivers.

It was a gala day when they left Melbourne, and their progress through the settled districts was a triumphant march; it almost seemed that Fate was playing with them in very mockery, smiling at the thought of the return.

The choice of the leader has always been a puzzle to most men, and it can only be accounted for in two ways. First, that the committee of management did not wish (as was only natural) to go outside of the colony for a man, and the tried and experienced explorers were all residents in other colonies; secondly, that the committee was, with two notable exceptions, composed of men quite unable to judge of the qualities essential in a leader; for the man of their choice, the unfortunate Burke, was most singularly unfitted for the position.

Burke was an Irishman, from the county of Galway. He had been in the Austrian service, and also in the Irish mounted constabulary. At the time when he applied for the post, which unhappily was awarded to him, he was an inspector of mounted police at Castlemaine. His appointment as leader was strongly supported by the chairman of the committee, Sir William Stawell, and it appears to have been backed up by those kind of general testimonials as to ability which recommend a man almost equally for any grade or position. Of special aptitude or scientific training he possessed no pretension, and his selection was a fatal blunder. In saying this, there is no reflection on the private character of the mistaken leader; he paid for the wrong estimation he held of his own fitness with his life, and the fault rests with those who placed him in a position where he also was responsible for the lives of others. After passing in review the different expeditions that have added so much lustre to our history, and striving to judge dispassionately of the characters of the men who, with good and evil fortune, have commanded them, one cannot help being struck by the exaggerated and misplaced stress laid upon the reputation Burke possessed for personal bravery. The calm and simple courage of Sturt, the cool judgment and forethought of Mitchell, the devotion of Austin, seem all to have been lost sight of by writers, who extol Burke in a way that would lead men to believe that every other Australian leader must have been an abject craven. This mistaken laudation has done more to glaringly parade Burke's many failings than more modest and judicious praise would have done.

Of his second, W. J. Wills (who shared the fate of his leader), he appears to have been a man eminently possessed of most of the qualities that would fit him for the position he held, but apparently tempered with an amiability of disposition that led him to give way completely to the rash judgment of his superior, without striving to temper that rashness.

Before the expedition travelled outside of the settled country, trouble appeared. First, Landells resigned in consequence of a quarrel with the leader. On returning to Melbourne, he expressed publicly an opinion that, under Burke's management, the expedition would be attended by most disastrous results.

Wright was then appointed third in charge, and he apparently had not the most remote idea of any of the functions entailed on him by his position, and has since been blamed as having caused the final catastrophe. He joined the party at Menindie, which, for the purpose of explanation, may be said to occupy the same position on the Darling as Laidley's Ponds, whence Sturt started for the interior.

The foregoing estimate of the men holding the principal commands is essential to enable the reader to understand how the astonishing blunders were so constantly perpetrated, that brought the whole campaign to such utter grief.

From Menindie to Cooper's Creek was the next stage, but the country now being fairly well known, they did not follow the route of Sturt the explorer. The main body of the party was left behind. Burke took with him Wills, six men, five horses, and sixteen camels, leaving the others to follow afterwards under the guidance of Wright, who went two hundred miles with them to point out the best route. They left Menindie on the 19th of October, 1860. On the 11th of November they arrived at Cooper's Creek, and here they camped, waiting for the arrival of Wright with the main body, and making short excursions to the northward. Grass and water were both plentiful, and up to their arrival at Cooper's Creek the journey had not been so arduous as an ordinary overlanding trip with cattle.

Wright's non-arrival, and the delay caused thereby, seemed to have worked upon Burke's impatient temper, and the extraordinary notion came into his head to divide his party of eight, and with three men to start across the continent to the Gulf of Carpentaria, leaving the others in charge of Brahe, to await his return, and also Wright's long-delayed arrival. On the 16th December, 1860, Burke, having with him Wills, King, and Gray, six camels, two horses, and three months' provisions, started on this tramp, which for perverse absurdity stands unequalled. The first duty of a man entrusted with such a large party, was to have carried out its chief aim and mission of reporting on the geographical features and formation of the country he was sent to explore, and bringing back the fullest and most minute account of it, and its productions. Burke, during the most important part of his journey, left behind him his botanist, naturalist, and geologist, and started without even the means at his disposal of following up any discoveries he might make. His sole thought evidently was to cross to Carpentaria and back, and be able to say that he had done so--a most unworthy ambition on the part of the leader of such a party, containing within itself all the elements of geographical research, and one that could certainly not have been anticipated by the promoters. After all the pains and cost expended in the organisation of this expedition, we have now the spectacle of the main body, including two of the scientific members, loitering on the outskirts of the settled districts; four men killing time on the banks of Cooper's Creek, and the leader and three others racing headlong across the country ahead, all four of them being utterly inexperienced men. As might be expected, the results of the journey are most barren. Burke scarcely troubled to keep any journal at all.

Wills' diary, too, is sadly uninteresting--it is but the baldest record of the day's doings, and destitute of the sympathetic style which is so essential in an explorer's log. From it we find that their first point was to make Eyre's Creek, but, before reaching it, they discovered a fine water-course coming from the north that took them a long distance on their way, there being abundance of both water and grass along its banks. From where this creek turned to the eastward they kept steadily north, the rivers, fortunately for them, keeping mostly a north and south course. They crossed the dividing range at the head of the Cloncurry River, and by following that river down reached the Flinders, and, finally, the mangroves and salt water in February, 1861. At the end of his scanty notes, Burke says:--

"28th March. At the conclusion of report, it would be as well to say that we reached the sea, but we could not obtain a view of the open ocean, although we made every endeavour to do so."

Wills' description of their arrival is as follows:

"Finding the ground in such a state from the heavy falls of rain that the camels could scarcely be got along, it was decided to leave them at camp 119, and for Mr. Burke and I to proceed towards the sea on foot, After breakfast, we accordingly started, taking with us the horse and three days' provisions. Our first difficulty was in crossing Billy's Creek, which we had to do where it enters the river, a few hundred yards below the camp. In getting the horse in here he got bogged in a quicksand so deeply as to be unable to stir, and we only succeeded in extricating him by undermining him on the creek side, and then lunging him into the water. Having got all the things in safety, we continued down the river bank, which bent about from east to west, but kept a general north course. A great deal of the land was so soft and rotten that the horse, with only one saddle on and twenty-five pounds on his back, could scarcely walk over it. At a distance of about five miles we again had him bogged, in crossing a small creek, after which he seemed so weak that we had some doubts about getting him on. We, however, found some better ground close to the water's edge, where the sandstone rock runs out, and we stuck to it as far as possible. Finding that the river was bending about so much that we were making very little progress in a northerly direction, we struck off due north, and soon came on some tableland, where the soil is shallow and gravelly, and clothed with box and swamp gums. Patches of the land were very boggy, but the main portion was sound enough. Beyond this we came on an open plain, covered with water up to one's ankles. The soil here was a stiff clay, and the surface very uneven, so that between the tufts of grass one was frequently knee-deep in water. The bottom, however, was sound, and no fear of bogging. After floundering through this for several miles, we came to a path formed by the blacks, and there were distinct signs of a recent migration in a southerly direction. By making use of this path we got on much better, for the ground was well-trodden and hard. At rather more than a mile the path entered a forest, through which flowed a nice watercourse, and we had not gone far before we found places where the blacks had been camping. The forest was intersected by little pebbly rises, on which they made their fires, and in the sandy ground adjoining some of the former had been digging yams, [The dios-corea of Carpentaria.] which seemed to be so numerous that they could afford to leave plenty of them behind, probably having selected only the very best. We were not so particular, but ate many of those that they had rejected, and found them very good. About half a mile further we came close on a blackfellow who was coiling by a camp fire, whilst his gin and piccaninny were yabbering alongside. We stopped for a short time to take out some of the pistols that were on the horse, and that they might see us before we were so near as to frighten them. just after we stopped, the black got up to stretch his limbs, and after a few seconds looked in our direction. It was very amusing to see the way in which he stared, standing for some time as if he thought he must be dreaming, and then, having signalled to the others, they dropped on their haunches and shuffled off in the quietest manner possible."

It will be, however, tedious to continue the quotation, suffice it to say that they reached a channel with tidal waters, and had to return without actually seeing the open sea. Then comes a blank in Wills' diary, and when he next writes they were on their way back.

Having accomplished their task, but with little profit, for they did not actually know their position on the Gulf, being strangely out in their reckoning; mistaking the river they were on for the Albert, over a hundred miles to the westward, the retreat commenced. Short rations and hardship now began to tell, and during the struggle back to the depôt there seems to have been an absence of that kindly spirit of self sacrifice which is so distinguishing a feature in nearly all the other expeditions whose lines have fallen disastrously. Gray fell sick, and stole some flour to make some gruel with; for this Burke beat him severely. Wills writes on one occasion that they had to wait, and send back for Gray, who was "gammoning" that he could not walk. Nine days afterwards the unfortunate man dies--an act which at any rate is not often successfully gammoned. But to bring the story to an end, they at last, on the evening of the 21St of April, reached the camp on Cooper's Creek, where they had left their four companions, and instead of finding the whole party there to greet them, found it lifeless and deserted.

Searching at the foot of a tree marked "dig" they found a small quantity of provisions concealed, and a note from Brahe stating that they had left only that morning. They sat down and ate a welcome supper of porridge, and considered their position. They could scarcely walk, and their camels were the same; they had fifty pounds of flour, twenty pounds of rice, sixty pounds of oatmeal, sixty pounds of sugar, and fifteen pounds of dried meat; a very fair stock if they only had had the means of transit; if Brahe had left three or four horses hobbled at the depôt they would have been able to follow, but as it was they could do nothing, and all the time Brahe was only separated from them by a very short distance, had they but known it,

Burke consulted his companions as to the feasibility of their being able to overtake Brahe, and they all agreed that in their tired and enfeebled condition it was hopeless to attempt it; then, according to King's narrative, Burke said that instead of returning up the creek, their old route to Menindie, they would go down to Mount Hopeless, in South Australia, following the line taken by A. C. Gregory. Wills objected and so did King, but ultimately both gave in, and this was the death warrant of two of them.

The following paper was placed in the depôt by Burke before starting:--

"Depôt No. 2, Cooper's Creek, Camp 65. The return party from Carpentaria consisting of myself, Wills and King (Gray dead), arrived here last night, and found that the depôt party had started on the same day. We proceed on to-morrow slowly down the creek to Adelaide, by Mount Hopeless, and shall endeavour to follow Gregory's track, but we are very weak. The two camels are done up and we shall not be able to travel faster than two or three miles a day. Gray died on the road from exhaustion and fatigue. We have all suffered much from hunger. The provisions left here will, I think, restore our strength. We have discovered a practicable route to Carpentaria, the chief portion of which lies on 140 deg. of east longitude. There is some good country between this and the Stony Desert. From there to the tropics the country is dry and stony. Between the tropics and Carpentaria a considerable portion is rangy, but it is well-watered and richly-grassed. We reached the shores of Carpentaria on February 11th, 1861. Greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone.

"(Signed) ROBERT O'HARA BURKE.

"April 22, 1861.

"P.S.--The camels cannot travel, and we cannot walk or we should follow the other party. We shall move very slowly down the creek."

After resting four or five days, and finding great advantage from their change of diet, the three men started, but one of the camels got bogged, and had to be shot as he lay in the creek, the explorers cutting off what meat they could from the body, and staying a couple of days to dry it in the sun. When they again started, the one camel they had left carried most of what they had, and they each took with them a bundle of about twenty-five pounds; but they made no progress, all the creeks they followed to the southward ran out into earthy plains and their one solitary beast of burden being knocked up, they had to return.

Now commenced a terrible struggle for mere existence the camel being past recovery, was shot, and the meat dried, and then the men tried to live, after the fashion of the blacks, on fish and nardoo. The natives were especially kind to the unfortunate men. In Wills' diary we find frequent mention of the liberal hospitality they extended to them, but to a great extent the novelty soon died out, and the blacks began to find their white guests rather an encumbrance, and soon commenced shifting their camps to avoid the burden of their support.

On the 27th May, Wills started alone to the depôt to deposit the journals, and a note stating their condition. He reached there on the 30th, and says in his diary:--

"No traces of anyone, except blacks, have been here since we left. Deposited some journals and a notice of our present condition."

This was the notice:--

"May 30th, 1861.

"We have been unable to leave the creek. Both camels are dead. Mr. Burke and King are down on the lower part of the creek. I am about to return to them, when we shall probably all come up this way. We are trying to live the best way we can, like the blacks, but we find it hard work. Our clothes are going fast to pieces. Send provisions and clothes as soon as possible.

"(Signed) WILLIAM J. WILLS."

"The depôt party having left, contrary to instructions, has put us in this fix. I have deposited some of my journals here for fear of accidents."

Having done this, Wills returned to his companions, being fed by the friendly natives on his way back. During the intercourse that of necessity they had had with the blacks during their detention on Cooper's Creek, they had noticed the extensive use the natives made of the seeds of the nardoo [See Appendix.] plant as an article of food; but for a long time they were unable to find out this plant, nor would the blacks show it to them. At last King accidentally found it, and, by its aid, they now managed to prolong their lives. But the seeds had to be gathered, cleaned, pounded and cooked, and even after all this labour (and to men in their state it was labour) very little nourishment was derived from eating it. An occasional crow or hawk was shot, and, by chance, a little fish obtained from the natives, and as this was all they could get, they were sinking rapidly. At last they decided that Burke and King should go up the creek and endeavour to find the natives and get food from them. Wills, who was now so weak as to be unable almost to move, was left lying under some boughs, with an eight days' supply of water and nardoo, the others trusting that before that time they would have returned to him.

On the 26th June the two men started, and poor Wills was left to meet his death alone. He must have retained his consciousness almost to the last. So exhausted was he, that death must have been only like a release from the trouble of living. His last entries, though giving evidences of fading faculties, are almost cheerful. He jocularly alludes to himself as Micawber, waiting for something to turn up. It is evident that he had given up hope, and waited for death's approach in a calm and resigned frame of mind, without fear, like a good and gallant man.

King and Burke did not go far; on the second day Burke had to give in from sheer weakness, and the next morning when his companion looked at him, he saw by the breaking light that his leader was dead.

This was the sad and bitter end of the high-spirited captain of this luckless expedition; an almost solitary death on the wide western plain, after enduring weeks of hunger and starvation. What must have been King's feelings at finding himself thus left without a companion to cheer his last hours when his turn, as he then thought, must inevitably soon come?

After wandering in search of the natives, and not finding them, the solitary man returned to Wills, who was also dead, and all he could do was to cover the body up with a little sand, without any hope that the same would be done by him.

Burke's last notes in his pocket book are as follows:--

"I hope we shall be done justice to. We have fulfilled our task, but we have been aban----. We have not been followed up as we expected, and the depôt party abandoned their post."

He winds up:--

"King has behaved nobly. He has stayed with me to the last, and placed the pistol in my hand, leaving me lying on the surface as I wished."

Left to himself, King, after a few days, made another effort to find the natives, and this time succeeded, living with their assistance until rescued by Howitt's relief party on September 15th, having for nearly three months subsisted on the hospitality of the natives.

Meanwhile that these unfortunate men were slowly starving to death on Cooper's Creek, parties were soon to be dispatched from north, south and east in quest of them.

Left at the depôt on Cooper's Creek, Brahe remained from the 14th of December, 1860, until the 21st of April, 1861. Then he left, his instructions, according to his own account, being (verbally) to remain at the depôt three months, or longer, if provisions and other circumstances would permit. Before leaving he buried, as before stated, a small supply of provisions and a note, which in full ran:--

"Depôt, Cooper's Creek, April 21, 1861. The depôt party of V.E.E. leaves this camp to-day to return to the Darling. I intend to go S.E. from camp 60 to get on to our old track at Bulloo. Two of my companions and myself are quite well; the third--Patton-has been unable to walk for the last eighteen days, as his leg has been severely hurt when thrown by one of the horses. No person has been up here from the Darling. We have six camels and twelve horses, in good working condition.

"WILLIAM BRAHE."

Unfortunately this was worded in such a way as to leave Burke, who got it that night, under the impression that they were all, with one exception, fairly well, and would probably make long stages, whereas, on the evening of the day that Burke returned, they were camped but fourteen miles away.

Wright, meantime, with the main body of the party had been camping and wandering between the Darling and Bulloo; his men sickened and died of scurvy, and he consumed his rations, and reduced the condition of his stock to no purpose. On Brahe's return he made an extraordinary display of energy, and returned with him to the depôt on Cooper's Creek, at which place they arrived on the 8th of May, whilst Burke and Wills were making their futile attempt to reach Mount Hopeless. Wright and Brahe came to the conclusion that no one had visited the caché since Brahe's departure, although the fact seems almost incredible. Brahe states, however:--

"Mr. Burke's return being so soon after my departure caused the tracks of his camels to correspond in the character of age exactly with our own tracks. The remains of three separate fires led us to suppose that blacks had been camped there. The fires had burned to mere ashes, and left no perceptible evidence from the position of the sticks as to whether they were black men's fires or not. The ground above the caché was so perfectly restored to the appearance it presented when I left it, that in the absence of any fresh sign or mark of any description to be seen near, it was impossible to suppose that it had been disturbed."

Wright and Brahe rode away again, and when Wills afterwards visited the depôt to bury the journals, he says that he could not perceive any sign of it having been visited; a series of singular and fatal oversights that almost seem to have been pre-ordained.

On the 18th of June, Wright reached the Darling and sent in his dispatches. As may be imagined they occasioned great consternation, and no time was lost in instituting search parties to scour half the continent for the missing men. Fortunately a light party, under Mr. A. W. Howitt, had already been equipped, to follow on Burke's tracks, for the long absence and silence of Wright had already caused people to feel anxious. Howitt's party was doubled and he made all speed to Cooper's Creek. Meantime the other colonies took the matter up and three more parties were in the field. Howitt, whose fortunes we must follow, started early in July; the Victoria, steam sloop, was sent up to the mouth of the Albert River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, from Brisbane, having Mr. W. Landsborough on board. Another Queensland expedition, under Mr. Walker, left the furthest out station, in the Rockhampton district, to proceed overland to the Gulf, and from South Australia, started M'Kinlay.

On the 8th of September Howitt, having with him Brahe, reached Cooper's Creek, and on the 13th arrived at the fatal depôt, but like all the others, he says that he could not see any sign of the caché having been touched; nor did he stop to examine it. On the 15th, while trying to follow Burke's outward track down the creek, Howitt says:--

"I crossed at a neck of sand, and again came on the track of a camel going up the creek; at the same time I found a native, who began to gesticulate in a very excited manner, and to point down the creek, bawling out, 'Gow! gow!' as loud as he could. When I went towards him he ran away, and finding it impossible to get him to come to me, I turned back to follow the camel track, and to look after my party, as I had not seen anything of them for some miles. The track was visible in sandy places, and was evidently the same I had seen for the last two days. I also found horse tracks in places, but very old. Crossing the creek I cut our track, and rode after the party. In doing so I came upon three pounds of tobacco, which had lain where I saw it for some time. This, together with the knife-handle, the fresh horse tracks, and the camel track going eastward, puzzled me extremely, and led me into a hundred conjectures. At the lower end of the large reach of water before mentioned, I met Sandy and Frank looking for me, with the intelligence that King, the only survivor of Mr. Burke's party, had been found. [See Appendix.] A little further on I found the party halted, and immediately went across to the black's wurleys, where I found King sitting in a hut that the blacks had made for him. He presented a melancholy appearance-wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be distinguished as a civilised being, except by the remnants of clothes on him."

So soon as King had recovered sufficient strength to accompany the party they went to the place where Wills had died, and found his body in the gunyah as King had described it, there it was buried. On the 21st, Burke's body was found up the creek, he too was buried where he died.

Howitt then, after rewarding the blacks who had cared for King, started home again by easy stages taking the rescued man with him. On his return to Melbourne, Howitt was sent back to disinter the remains of the explorers, and bring them down to Melbourne, which task he safely accomplished. A public funeral then took place, and subsequently a statue was erected to their memory.

Dr. Beckler, and Messrs. Stone, Purcell, and Patton were the others whose lives were sacrificed on this unfortunate trip, the first three were members of Wright's party, the last one was with Brahe at the depôt.

Before ending the narration of this journey of Burke and Wills, it will be remembered, that an account of Stuart's expedition to Central Mount Stuart, and Attack Creek was forwarded to the leader; these papers were entrusted to Trooper Lyons to take from Swan Hill to Wright's camp. Wright ordered him on to follow the tracks of Burke, who he supposed was about two hundred miles away; he was accompanied by the saddler of the party, McPherson, and a black boy, Dick. They followed Burke's tracks for some days but never reached him, their horses gave in, and they being insufficiently provided with provisions nearly perished, finally they were picked up by a relief party under Doctor Beckler.

The nardoo which served to prolong the life of Burke and Wills for a considerable time is a small ground plant resembling clover in the shape of its leaves. These leaves are covered with silvery down, and the seeds, too, have this down on them. When fresh the seeds are flat and oval. The nardoo grows in loose soil, subject to inundation, generally on polygonum flats.

Whilst this tragedy had been enacted, Stuart was endeavouring to force his way across Australia, and at the time his fellow explorers were slowly starving to death on Cooper's Creek, he was making gallant efforts to cross the dry tableland that separated him from the heads of the coast rivers.

Stuart followed his old track by the way of the Fincke and the Hugh, and on the 12th April arrived at their former acquaintance, the Bonney, which they found running strong, with abundant green feed on its banks. They followed it down until it spread out and was lost in a large plain; so striking north, the party on the 21st April reached Tennant's Creek, and four days after, they came to the scene of their skirmish with the natives, on Attack Creek. This time, although the tracks of natives were numerous, they were permitted to pass peacefully onwards. Still pushing to the north, along the base of the line of broken range, that in that locality runs north and south, Stuart found and named many creeks, all of them heading from the range and forming for a considerable space good defined channels, but becoming lost on entering the low country. At last, on the 4th of May, he came to the end of the range, which he there called the Ashburton Range. Here he made several attempts to the north-west, but could discover neither water nor watercourses in that direction; nothing but flooded plains, beautifully grassed, but heavy and rotten to ride over; beyond this, the country changed for the worse, becoming sandy and scrubby.

On the 16th of May, he first encountered a new kind of scrub, which is now known as Stuart's hedgewood. It spreads out in many branches from the root upwards, interlacing with its neighbours on either side, forming an impervious hedge. On the 23rd, he found the magnificent sheet of water, which he called Newcastle Waters, and which at first seemed to promise him good assistance in getting to the north, but it proved delusive. Beyond the Newcastle he could not advance his party at all; north, north-cast, and north-west, it was all the same endless grassy plains, terminating in thick scrubby forest, until at last he had again to give up hope, and return to Adelaide.

Such, however, was the confidence of the authorities in him, and such his own energy, that in less than a month he was on his way to Chambers' Creek, to make preparations for a fresh start. His last journey had proved the existence of a long line of good country, fairly well-watered, and although beyond it he had not been able to proceed, still, there was no knowing what a fresh trial might bring forth. He had, at any rate, brought back his party in safety, with the loss of only a few horses; and in no way deterred by the fate of the Victorian explorers, he started once more, this time destined to meet with success.