ce far. On the second day Burke had to give
in from sheer weakness; the next morning when his companion looked at him
he saw by the breaking light that his leader was dead.

The last entries in Burke's pocket-book run thus:--

"I hope we shall be done justice to. We have fulfilled our task but have
been aban----. We have not been followed up as we expected, and the depot
party abandoned their post...King has behaved nobly. He has stayed with
me to the last, and placed the pistol in my hand, leaving me lying on the
surface as I wished."

Left to himself, King wandered about in search of the natives, and, not
finding them, the lonely man returned to the spot where they had left
Wills, and found that his troubles too were over. He covered up the
corpse with a little sand, and then left once more in search of the
natives. This time he found them, and, moved by his solitary condition,
they helped him to live until rescued by Howitt's party on September
15th.

[Illustration. Edwin J. Welch, second in command of the Howitt Relief
Expedition, and the first man to find King.]

Meanwhile the absence of any news from Wright, in charge of the main
body, was beginning to create a feeling of uneasiness in Melbourne. A
light party had already been equipped under A.W. Howitt to follow up
Burke's tracks, when suddenly despatches from the Darling arrived from
Wright, telling of the non-arrival of the four men. Howitt's party was
doubled, and he was immediately sent off to Cooper's Creek to commence a
search for the missing men. He had not far to go. On the 13th of
September he arrived at the fateful depot camp on Cooper's Creek, with
Brahe. He immediately commenced to follow, or try to follow, Burke's
outward track, but on Sunday the 15th, while still on Cooper's Creek,
King was found by E.J. Welch, the second in command of the relief party.
Welch's account of the finding of King is as follows:--

"After travelling about three miles, my attention was attracted by a
number of niggers on the opposite bank of the creek, who shouted loudly
as soon as they saw me, and vigorously waved and pointed down the creek.
A feeling of something about to happen excited me somewhat, but I little
expected what the sequel was to be. Moving cautiously on through the
undergrowth which lined the banks of the creek, the blacks kept pace on
the opposite side, their cries increasing in volume and intensity; when
suddenly rounding a bend I was startled to s