ty-seven
camels had been imported from India for the express use of the explorers
and for the transportation of tents, baggage, equipments, and fifteen
months' supply of provisions, with vessels for carrying such supplies of
water as the character of the country over which they were passing
should require them to take with them. Their plan of march divided
itself into three stages, of which Cooper's Creek was the middle one,
and about the centre of the Australian continent. At first their
progress was slow, encumbered as they were by excess of baggage and
equipments: then discontents arose in the little band, and Burke, too
ardent and impulsive for a leader, was first grieved, and then angered,
at what he deemed a want of spirit among some of his men. On the 19th of
October, at Menindie, he left a portion of the troop under the command
of Lieutenant Wright, with orders after a short rest to rejoin him at
Cooper's Creek. It was the end of January before Wright set out for the
point indicated. Meanwhile, as month followed month, bringing to
Melbourne no news of Burke's party, the worst fears were awakened
concerning its fate, and an expedition was fitted out to search for the
lost heroes. To young Howitt was given the command, and it was his
fortune to unveil the sad mystery that had enveloped their fate. On the
29th of June, 1861, crossing the river Loddon, Howitt encountered a
portion of Burke's company under the lead of Brahe, the fourth
lieutenant. Four of his men had died of scurvy, and the rest of his
little band seemed utterly dispirited. Howitt learned that in two months
Burke had crossed the entire route, sometimes desert, sometimes prairie,
between Menindie and Cooper's Creek, and had reached the borders of the
Gulf of Carpentaria, on the extreme north of the continent; also, that
he was there in January, enduring the fiercest heat of summer, and men
and beasts alike languishing for water, and nearly out of provisions. It
was all in vain that he deplored the tardiness of Wright, and hoped, as
he neared Cooper's Creek, for the coming of those who alone had the
means of life for his little squad of famished men. Equally in vain that
Wills with three camels reconnoitred the ground for scores of miles,
hoping to find water. Not an oasis, not a rivulet, was to be found, and
without a single drop of water to quench their parched lips they set out
on another long and dreary march. Desiring to secure the utmost speed,
Bu