lfishly. Others in your
position might have thought that, being stronger than the rest of the
party--able perhaps to pursue game, catch fish, or to pound nardoo--it
would have been consistent with duty to escape to the nearest settlement,
perhaps with the vague idea of sending back assistance to your comrades.
I feel satisfied that any thought of deserting never crossed your
mind--that you abandoned all desire to serve yourself alone, and that
they were determined to share the fate of your companions. The result has
proved that you acted rightly and properly. Your example may serve to
teach us that the path of duty, generally, under Providence, is the path
of safety. And what is about to take place tonight will also teach us
another lesson:

That duty never did yet want its meed.

...

(Applause.) I may just refer to the fortunate circumstance that our
meeting should be graced by the presence of a gentleman who, partly from
motives of humanity, and partly with a view to share in the glory of the
enterprise, volunteered to lead one of the subsidiary expeditions sent in
search of the missing expedition of which you formed a member. Those
subsidiary expeditions, it is well known, have led to a great increase of
our geographical knowledge of the interior of the continent; and I
believe, among the most brilliant exploits which grace the history of
Australian exploration, there is not one more brilliant to be found than
the passage made by the party under our friend Mr. Landsborough from the
shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Darling River. (Applause.) I
hope Mr. Landsborough will be kind enough tonight to give us some
information as to his route on the occasion. We all know, without waiting
for that explanation, that his journey has conferred a most substantial
benefit on all these colonies. It has, there can be no doubt, very much
accelerated the formation of a great settlement in North Australia, which
may be expected to become, some day, a separate and independent colony.
In fact it has formed a fitting addition to the noble efforts which have
been made by this colony in the cause of Australian exploration. Those
efforts, as we all know, are now about to terminate. Instructions have
been despatched to Mr. Howitt to return as speedily as possible; and when
he brings back the remains of the lamented explorers, Burke and Wills, we
shall approach the closing scene of the great drama--or tragedy, as I
believe I may ca