y kept a fire burning, and fired
off rockets, and when daylight came and a boat was lowered from the
schooner, they felt no misgivings. Time passed, and Carron again ascended
the look-out. What he saw nearly blasted his eyesight. The schooner was
standing out to sea; he was just in time to see her round the point and
disappear.

They strove to persuade themselves that it was not the Bramble, a relief
schooner that was supposed to cruise along the coast. But it assuredly
had been the Bramble, and her men had not seen the signals against the
gloomy background of scrub and hills. They knew nothing of Kennedy's
death, nor of Carron's plight. The agony of this disappointment must have
been more bitter than death. Mitchell was the next to die, and the
survivors were too weak to give him burial. Then Niblett and Wall
departed, but on the last day of the year relief came to the remaining
two.

Some natives suddenly brought Carron a dirty note, to say that help was
coming, and he saw by their gestures that there was a vessel in the bay.
He scribbled a note in reply, but they refused to take it, and began to
crowd into the camp and handle their weapons. They were not going to be
baulked of their prey. At the very moment when they were poising their
spears, the relief party arrived. Four brave men -- Captain Dobson of the
Ariel, Dr. Vallack, Barrett a sailor, and the eager Jacky-Jacky -- had
forced their way through mangroves and hostile threatening natives to
snatch them from their doom.

Nothing could be carried away but the two famished men, and they were
helped down to the boat without coming into active hostilities. Thus
ended the most disastrous expedition in Australian annals. Kennedy's body
was never recovered, nor was the fate of the men at Shelburne Bay
revealed. The bodies at Weymouth Bay were re-buried on Albany Island, and
a tablet was erected in memory of Kennedy, in St. James's Church, Sydney.

CHAPTER 10. LATER EXPLORATION IN THE NORTH-EAST.

10.1. WALKER IN SEARCH OF BURKE AND WILLS.

Frederick Walker commenced his bush career as a pioneer squatter in the
districts of Southern Queensland, but afterwards made his residence near
the centre, where he joined the Native Police. He had long bush
experience, was a firm believer in the training of the natives in
quasi-military duty, and had taken a prominent part in the formation of
the Queensland Native Police. On this relief expedition, the party was
compos