hey had rested they would proceed by gentle
stages towards the Mount Hopeless sheeprun.

Accordingly, on the next day Burke wrote and deposited in the cache a
letter giving a sketch of the exploration, and added the following
postscript:

'The camels cannot travel, and we cannot walk, or we should follow the
other party. We shall move very slowly down the Creek.'

The cache was again covered with earth, and left as they had found it,
though nothing was added to the word 'Dig,' or to the date on the tree;
which curious carelessness on the part of men accustomed to note every
camping-ground in this way seems unaccountable.

A few days after their return they started with the month's supply of
provisions that had been left.

They had every reason to hope, with the help of the camels, they might
easily reach Mount Hopeless in time to preserve their lives and to reap
the reward of their successful exertions.

* * * * *

It will be remembered that when Burke formally appointed Brahe as
officer in command of the depot until Wright should arrive, he was told
to await his leader's return to Cooper's Creek, _or not to leave it
until obliged by absolute necessity_. Day after day, week after week
passed, and Wright, with the rest of the stores from Menindie, never
came. It was more than four months since Burke's party went north, and
every day for the last six weeks Brahe had looked out anxiously for
their return.

On one hand he was worried by Patten, who was dying, and who wanted to
go back to the Darling for advice; on the other, by M'Donough's
continually pouring into his ears the assurance that Burke would not
return that way, but had doubtless by this time made for some port on
the Queensland coast, and had returned to Melbourne by sea; and that if
they stayed at the depot they would all get scurvy, and in the end die
of starvation. Though they had sufficient provisions to keep them for
another month, they decided to start on the morning of April 21, leaving
the box of stores and the note hidden in the earth which the explorers
found on their return.

Following their former route towards the Darling, they fell in with
Wright's party at Bulloo, where they had been stationary for several
weeks, and where three of the men had died of scurvy.

Brahe at once put himself under Wright's orders; but he did not rest
until Wright consented to go to Cooper's Creek with him, so that before
aban