o
restrict the number of his companions, and reject the offers of many
adventurous young men eager to accompany him. His party, at first
composed of six persons, had swelled to ten, when, upon the 30th
September, it left Jimba, the advanced post of the white man. The
stores consisted of sixteen head of cattle, twelve hundred pounds of
flour, two hundred pounds of sugar, eighty pounds of tea, and twenty
of gelatine, eight bags of shot, and thirty pounds of powder. Each man
had two pairs of strong trousers, three shirts, and two pairs of
shoes,--certainly no very sumptuous equipment for a journey expected
to last seven months, but which occupied fifteen. Fortunately, as they
advanced, game and wild animals, at first rare, became more plentiful;
and although the flour was expended at the end of the eighth month,
they managed, with the aid of kangaroos, emus, waterfowl, and other
beasts and birds, to protract their beef till their arrival at Port
Essington. The party comprised (besides Dr Leichhardt) Messrs Calvert,
Roper, Hodgson and Gilbert, John Murphy, a lad of sixteen, a convict
of the name of William Phillips, Caleb, an American negro, and
Messieurs Harry Brown and Charley, Australian aborigines, mutinous but
useful, of whose character and propensities we learn more than of
those of any other member of the party. The Doctor is, indeed,
remarkably silent with respect to his fellow-labourers in the vineyard
of Tasmanian discovery. Eight men of the adventurous disposition
implied by their engaging in such an expedition, could hardly be
thrown together for a year or more without displaying flashes of
character, and greater or less eccentricity, the result of their
exceptional position, of the many shifts and devices they had to
resort to. Of characteristic traits, however, we obtain few hints from
Dr Leichhardt, the most amiable, but the most matter-of-fact of
travellers. His sympathies and attention are engrossed by the stocks
and stones, the beasts, birds, trees and flowers around him. In them
he finds tongues and books, and with and of them he loves to
discourse. Although evidently a good comrade and considerate chief,
his enthusiasm as a naturalist and man of science preclude much heed
of his companions' peculiarities--if such they had. Enough that they
are at hand, ready to aid him in catering for a meal, in chasing stray
bullocks, replacing fallen baggage, and in the many other toils and
labours in which he manfully