property of the country, but to one who has been a warrior
nevertheless, fighting many difficulties that many warriors had not to
contend with, and carrying his life in his hands, as warriors have done
of old, in leading those who are associated with him in the triumph here
to-day. (Cheers.) There was no beautiful captive in his train, and no
curious animals, as in the old Roman triumphs. All that we saw were some
dusty pack-horses, and some well-worn packsaddles; yet with these the
explorer has to proceed on his journey, and conquer the difficulties of
the desert, knowing that with such slender things to rely upon he must
hope to overcome the dangers, and endure to the end. (Cheers.) Gentlemen,
in the page of Australian Exploration, which is the sentiment attached to
my toast--in its pages there are to be read too many tragic stories. We
cannot think of the history of exploration without thinking with regret
of some of the names connected with it. What an extraordinary page is
that of Leichardt, of whom it has been said no man

'--knows his place of rest
Far in the cedar shade.'

"And yet so great is the interest which is taken in his fate that the
wildest stories of a convict in the gaols of a neighbouring colony have
been of interest to us, and have caused some of our fellow Australians to
send out a party to see if something could not still be heard of that
explorer. Then think of Burke and Wills, and what a tragic tale was
theirs--so nearly saved, so closely arrived to a place of safety, and yet
to miss it after all! I daresay there are hundreds here who, like myself,
saw their remains taken through our streets in the gloomy hearse on the
road to that colony which they had served so well; and we know that now
the country where they laid down their lives is brought under the hand of
pastoral settlement. They were the heroes of other lands; but have we not
heroes also of our own? (Loud cheering.) Have we not here the likeness of
a man who knew not what fear was, because he never saw fear who carried
out the thorough principle of the Briton in that he always persevered to
the end? And then, coming nearer to our own time, speaking by weeks and
months, had we not our opportunity of entertaining in the city the leader
of an expedition that successfully passed its way through the desert to
the shores of Western Australia? I refer to Colonel Warburton. When
speaking, upon that occasion, of the noble way in which the people