the continent from south to north, on
condition that a further sum of L2000 should be subscribed within a
twelvemonth. The amount having been raised within the time specified, the
Victorian parliament supplemented it by a vote of L6000, and an expedition
was organized under the leadership of Burke, with W.J. Wills as surveyor
and astronomical observer. The story of this expedition, which left
Melbourne on the 21st of August 1860, furnishes perhaps the most painful
episode in Australian annals. Ten Europeans and three Sepoys accompanied
the expedition, which was soon torn by internal dissensions. Near Menindie
on the Darling, Landells, Burke's second in command, became insubordinate
and resigned, his example being followed by the doctor--a German. On the
11th of November Burke, with Wills and five assistants, fifteen horses and
sixteen camels, reached Cooper's Creek in Queensland, where a depot was
formed near good grass and abundance of water. Here Burke proposed waiting
the arrival of his third officer, Wright, whom he had sent back from
Torowoto to Menindie to fetch some camels and supplies. Wright, however,
delayed his departure until the 26th of January 1861. Meantime, weary of
waiting, Burke, with Wills, King and Gray as companions, determined on the
16th of December to push on across the continent, leaving an assistant
named Brahe to take care of the depot until Wright's arrival. On the 4th of
February 1861 Burke and his party, worn down by famine, reached the estuary
of the Flinders river, not far from the present site of Normantown on the
Gulf of Carpentaria. On the 26th of February began their return journey.
The party suffered greatly from famine and exposure, and but for the rainy
season, thirst would have speedily ended their miseries. In vain they
looked for the relief which Wright was to bring them. On the 16th of April
Gray died, and the emaciated survivors halted a day to bury his body. That
day's delay, as it turned out, cost Burke and Wills their lives; they
arrived at Cooper's Creek to find the depot deserted. But a few hours
before Brahe, unrelieved by Wright, and thinking that Burke had died or
changed his plans, had taken his departure for the Darling. With such
assistance as they could get from the natives, Burke, and his two
companions struggled on, until death overtook Burke and Wills at the end of
June. King sought the natives, who cared for him until his relief by a
search party in September. No