, and no food was to be found by the way. Gray was the
first to fail and to die. Heavy rains made the ground impossibly heavy,
and the camels sank to the ground exhausted. Finally they had to be
killed and eaten. Then the horses went. At long last the three weary
men and two utterly worn-out camels dragged themselves to Cooper's
Creek, hoping to find their companions and the food they had left there
four months ago. It was 21st April. Not a soul was to be seen!

"King," cried Wills, in utter despair, "they are _gone_!"

As the awful truth flashed on them Burke--their leader--threw himself
on to the ground, realising their terrible situation. They looked
round. On a tree they saw the word "Dig." In a bottle they found a
letter: "We leave the camp to-day, 21st April 1861. We have left you
some food. We take camels and horses."

[Illustration: BURKE AND WILLS AT COOPER'S CREEK. From a woodcut in
a contemporary Australian account of the expedition.]

Only a few hours ago the party had left Cooper's Creek! And the
explorers were too weak and tired to follow! They ate a welcome supper
of oatmeal porridge and then, after resting a couple of days; they
struggled on their way, three exhausted men and two tired camels. Their
food was soon finished, and they had to subsist on a black seed like
the natives called "nardoo." But they grew weaker and weaker, and the
way was long. The camels died first. Then Wills grew too ill to walk,
and there was nothing for it but to leave him and push on for help.
The natives were kind to him, but he was too far gone, and he died
before help could arrive. Burke and King sadly pushed on without him,
but a few days later Burke died, and in the heart of Australia the
one white man, King, was left alone. It was not till the following
September that he was found "sitting in a hut that the blacks had made
for him. He presented a melancholy appearance, wasted to a shadow and
hardly to be distinguished as a civilised being except by the remnants
of clothes on him."

So out of that gay party of explorers who left Melbourne in the summer
of 1860 only one man returned to tell the story of success and the
sadder story of suffering and disaster.

CHAPTER LX

ROSS MAKES DISCOVERIES IN THE ANTARCTIC SEAS

Now, while explorers were busy opening up Australian inland, Ross was
leaving the Australian waters for his voyage to the south. Four years
after the return of the Ross polar expedition, Sir Jo