lbourne crowded to the Royal Park to witness
the departure of the most liberally equipped exploring party that had
yet set out to penetrate the unknown regions of Australia. Their object
was to cross the land from the South to the Northern Seas, a task which
had never before been accomplished, as well as to add to the scientific
knowledge of the interior.

The expedition started under the leadership of Robert O'Hara Burke, who
began his career as a cadet at Woolwich, but left at an early age to
enter a regiment of Hussars in the Austrian service, in which he
subsequently held a captaincy.

When this regiment was disbanded, in 1848, he obtained an appointment in
the Irish Constabulary, which he exchanged for the Police Force of
Victoria in 1853, and in this he was at once made an inspector.

A Mr. Landells, in charge of the camels, went as second in command, and
William John Wills, an astronomer and surveyor, as third.

Wills was the son of Dr. William Wills, and was born at Totnes, in
Devonshire, in 1834; he was cousin to Lieutenant Le Viscomte, who
perished with Sir John Franklin in the 'Erebus.'

In 1852 the news of the wonderful gold discoveries induced him to try
his fortune in Victoria; but he soon became attached to the staff of the
Melbourne Observatory, where he remained until selected for the post of
observer and surveyor to the exploring expedition.

From the time that the expedition first took shape the names of these
leaders were associated in the minds of the people with those of other
brave men who had toiled to solve the mystery that lay out in the great
thirsty wilderness of the interior. Some of them had tried, and,
failing, had returned broken in health by the terrible privations they
had met with. Others, having failed, had tried again; but the seasons
and years had rolled on since, and had brought back no story of their
fate.

Therefore, as late in the afternoon Burke, mounted on a pretty grey,
rode forth at the head of the caravan, cheer after cheer rang out from
either side of the long lane formed by the thousands of sympathetic
colonists who were eager to get a last glimpse of the adventurers.

Immediately following the leader came a number of pack horses led by the
European servants on foot; then Landells and Dr. Beckler mounted on
camels; and in their train sepoys, leading two by two twenty-four
camels, each heavily burdened with forage and provisions, and a mounted
sepoy brought up the