outh; and, as they went onward,
they found the river grow deeper and wider, until it spread into a broad
sheet of water, which they called Lake Alexandrina, after the name of
our present Queen, who was then the Princess Alexandrina Victoria. On
crossing this lake they found the passage to the ocean blocked up by a
great bar of sand, and were forced to turn their boat round and face the
current, with the prospect of a toilsome journey of a thousand miles
before they could reach home. They had to work hard at their oars, Sturt
taking his turn like the rest. At length they entered the Murrumbidgee;
but their food was now failing, and the labour of pulling against the
stream was proving too great for the men, whose limbs began to grow
feeble and emaciated. Day by day they struggled on, swinging more and
more wearily at their oars, their eyes glassy and sunken with hunger and
toil, and their minds beginning to wander as the intense heat of the
midsummer sun struck on their heads. One man became insane; the others
frequently lay down, declaring that they could not row another stroke,
and were quite willing to die. Sturt animated them, and, with enormous
exertions, he succeeded in bringing the party to the settled districts,
where they were safe. They had made known the greatest river of
Australia and traversed one thousand miles of unknown country, so that
this expedition was by far the most important that had yet been made
into the interior; and Sturt, by land, with Flinders, by sea, stands
first on the roll of Australian discoverers.

#6. Mitchell.#--The next traveller who sought to fill up the blank map of
Australia was Major Mitchell. Having offered, in 1831, to conduct an
expedition to the north-west, he set out with fifteen convicts and
reached the Upper Darling; but two of his men, who had been left behind
to bring up provisions, were speared by the blacks, and the stores
plundered. This disaster forced the company soon after to return. In
1835, when the major renewed his search, he was again unfortunate. The
botanist of the party, Richard Cunningham, brother of the Allan
Cunningham already mentioned, was treacherously killed by the natives;
and, finally, the determined hostility of the blacks brought the
expedition to an ignominious close.

In 1836 Major Mitchell undertook an expedition to the south, and in this
he was much more successful. Taking with him a party of twenty-five
convicts, he followed the Lachlan to