it. Burke proposed that instead of returning
up the creek along the old route to Menindie, they should follow the
creek down to Mount Hopeless in South Australia, following the route
taken by A.C. Gregory.* Wills objected to this, and so did King, but
ultimately both gave in, thereby signing their death warrant; for if they
had remained quietly at the depot, they would have been rescued.

*[Footnote.] See Chapter 18.

After resting for five days, and finding their strength much restored by
the food, they started for Mount Hopeless, ill-omened name. Before they
left, Burke placed in the cache a paper, stating that they had returned,
and then carefully restored the ground to its former condition. The
common and natural thought to mark a tree or to make some other
unmistakable sign of their return, does not seem to have occurred to
either of the leaders. It will be seen further on how this scarcely
credible omission was a main factor in deciding their fate.

As they progressed slowly down the creek, one of the two camels became
bogged, and had to be shot where it lay. The wanderers cut off what meat
there was on the body, and stayed two or three days to dry it in the sun.
The one camel had now to carry what they had, except the bundles that the
men bore, each some twenty-five pounds in weight. They made but little
progress; the creek split up into many channels that ran out into earthy
plains; and at last, when their one beast of burden gave in, they had to
acknowledge defeat, and commenced to return. After shooting the wretched
camel and drying his flesh, the men tried to live like the blacks, on
fish and nardoo, the seeds of a small plant of which the natives make
flour. But the struggle for existence was very hard; they were not expert
hunters, and the natives, who were at first friendly and shared their
food with them, soon out-grew the novelty of their presence, began to
find them an encumbrance, and constantly shifted camp to avoid the burden
of their support.

On the 27th of May, Wills went forward alone to visit the depot and
deposit there the journals and a note stating their condition. He reached
there on the 30th and wrote in his diary that "No traces of anyone,
except blacks have been here since we left."

But while they were absent down the creek, Brahe and Wright had visited
the place, and finding no sign of their return, and the cache apparently
untouched, had ridden away concluding that they had not ye