Carpentaria to search for the missing explorers, had they reached
that part of the coast; and to expedite and assist land parties in
advancing, southwards, to their aid. Captain Norman suffered some
delay by the unfortunate wreck of the Firefly, a trader, laden with
horses, coals, and straw; and having on board Mr. Landsborough and
party, who were to start from the Albert river, or thereabouts.
This wreck occurred on the 4th September, 1861, on one of the group
of islands to the north, called Sir Charles Hardy's Islands. On the
7th, they were found by Commander Norman, and through his great
personal exertions, ably seconded by his officers and crew, he got
the ship off, with the greater part of the horses and coals, and
nearly all the stores.

On the 1st of October, they reached the mouth of the Albert. On the
14th of the same month, Landsborough started for the head of that
river, as far as it was navigable, in the Firefly, under the
command of Lieutenant Woods of the Victoria; and on the 17th they
were landed about twelve miles up the stream. It was past the
middle of November before Mr. Landsborough resumed his onward
course; and as his explorations had little to do with an endeavour
to discover the tracks of the Victorian Expedition, although he
gained much credit by his exertions, it is unnecessary to detail
them more minutely here. I shall merely say that he followed a
course south by east, skirting the country rather more to the
westward than the track followed by previous explorers, and
eventually reached Victoria.

Mr. Walker, despatched overland from Queensland, reached the Gulf
on the 7th of December, 1861; and reported that he had, on the 24th
of November, found well-defined traces of three or four camels and
one horse, undoubtedly belonging to the Victorian Expedition, and
making their way down the Flinders. With his usual characteristic,
he started again on the 11th of December. Mr. Walker, with his
party, consisting chiefly of natives, did good service in his
progress through Queensland; for when the report reached Melbourne,
through Captain Norman, that he had discovered the tracks of the
camels so near the sea, it furnished satisfactory evidence of the
correctness of my son's journals, although the fatal news of his
death and that of his commander had been long received. There were
not wanting ungenerous cavillers to insinuate doubts that he and
Burke had been at the Gulf. This inference they sought