d watch by the
Royal Geographical Society, and was voted 1,000 pounds by the South
Australian Government.

During the early settlement of the Northern Territory, much
dissatisfaction had arisen concerning the site chosen at Escape Cliffs.
McKinlay was sent north by the South Australian Government to select a
more favourable position, and to report generally on the capabilities of
the new territory. He organized an expedition at Escape Cliffs, and left
with the intention of making a long excursion to the eastward. But a very
wet season set in, and he had reached only the East Alligator River when
sudden floods cut him off and hemmed him in. The whole party would have
been destroyed but for the resourcefulness displayed by the leader, who
made coracles of horse-hides stretched on frames of saplings, by which
means they escaped. On his return, McKinlay examined the mouth of the
Daly River, and recommended Anson Bay as a more suitable site, but his
suggestion was not adopted. McKinlay, whose health suffered from the
effect of the hardships incident to his journeys, retired to spend his
days in the congenial atmosphere of pastoral pursuits, and died, in 1874,
at Gawler, South Australia, where a monument is erected to his memory.

15.2. WILLIAM LANDSBOROUGH.

William Landsborough, the son of a Scotch physician, was born in Ayrshire
and educated at Irvine. When he came to Australia, he settled first in
the New England district of New South Wales, and thence removed to
Queensland. In 1856, his interest in discovery and a desire to find new
country led him to undertake much private exploration, principally on the
coastal parts of Queensland, in the district of Broadsound and the Isaacs
River. In 1858 he explored the Comet to its head, and in the following
year the head waters of the Thomson.

An old friend and erstwhile comrade, writing of him, says:
"Landsborough's enterprise was entirely founded on self-reliance. He had
neither Government aid nor capitalists at his back when he achieved his
first success as an explorer. He was the very model of a pioneer --
courageous, hardy, good-humoured, and kindly. He was an excellent
horseman, a most entertaining and, at times, eccentric companion, and he
could starve with greater cheerfulness than any man I ever saw or heard
of. But, excellent fellow though he was, his very independence of
character and success in exploring provoked much ill-will."

Landsborough was recommended for