The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-22 00:00:00

THE .AUST.RALIAN EXPLORING

EXPEDITION.

THE CONTINENT CROSSED.
DEATH OF BURKE, WILLS, AND GRAY.
(From the Melbourne, Herald and Melbourne Argus of
Nove»zber 25.)
The most important, and at the same time, we
regret to say, the most painful incident of the pre-
sent month is the veil which has been removed
from the mystery which enveloped the fate of
Burke and his companions. Although little hope
was entertained of their rescue, yet the circum-

stances attending the deaths of three of them have

been of the most painful description, and have
caused a great amount of excitement and sympathy
by the public in the fate of the unfortunate ex-
plorers. The continent has been crossed by Burke
and his companions, and when returning to Cooper's
Creek, almost within the bounds of civilisation, and
where they expected succour after their exhaustion
caused by their arduous journey, they found that
the depot party,had left a few hours before. They
were unable from exhaustion to follow them, and

they made an ineffectual effort to reach the settled
districts of South Australia, but were compelled to
return. The party consisted of Messrs. Burke and
Wills, the leader and second in command, and of
Gray and King, two subordinates. Gray died first
from exhaustion on the road from Carpentaria to
Cooper's Creek, and the unfortunate fate of Burke
and Wills is disclosed below. On Saturday even-

in;, the 2d of November, the sad intelligence
was received in town from Sandhurst, announeing
the arrival there of Mr. Brahe, a member of Mr.
Howitt's exploring party, with despatches of the
first importance from that gentleman, relating to
the fate of the expedition under the command of
Mr. Burke. It soon transpired that Mr. Howitt's
party had obtained unimpeachable evidence of the
successful accomplishment by Mr. Burke and his
companions of the object of the expedition, but
that the intrepid explorers had, with a single ex-
ception, lost their lives after rendering this great
service to their country. The principal facts
disclosed are as follow : Mr. , Burke, Mr.

Wills, and King arrived at Cooper's Creek on the
21st of April, only a few hours after the deaparture
of Mr. Brahe, en his return to Menindie with the
depot party. Mr. Burke and his companions,
Messrs. Wills, King, and Gray, had crossed the
continent. They retraced their steps to the depot at
Cooper's Creek, Gray dying on the road from ex-
haustion, consequent upon fatigue and insufficiency
of food. Mr. Burke states his disappointment at
finding the station abandoned. In the hand-writing
of Mr. W ills is conveyed the information that the
unfortunate gentlemen were disabled from following
on the track's of Mr. Brahe's party, through the
inability of the:camels to travel. They subsequently
endeavoured to reach Mount Hopeless, having been
informed before they left Melbourne, that there was
a cattle station within a distance of 150 miles from
One of their camels got bogged,
Cooper's Creek.
and the party being too weak to dig it out, they
were compelled to shoot it. They cured some of the
flesh and planted it, taking a portion of the meat
with them. They also obtained some "nardoo," a
description of farinaceous berry upon which the
natives chiefly subsist. Being compelled to aban-
don the attempt to make the Mount, they returned
to the creek, having been obliged to slaughter their
remaining camel by the way. The flesh of the
animal having enabled them to recruit their store of
provisions, they again started for the South Aus-
tralian country, but were a second time foiled
through want of water. Their food now appears to
have consisted almost entirely of " nardoo," which
King had been fortunate enough to find. They de-
termined to reach Mount Hopeless, but the party
were so exhausted by fatigue and hunger that it was
first of all necessary to obtain sufficient food to sus-
tain their strength. Messrs. Burke and King
accordingly set out with the object of getting pro-
visions from the natives ; Mr. Wills, who unable
fr:at excessive debility to accompany them, being
left behind at his own request, with sufficient
" nardoo" to last eight days. Mr. Burke
died three days after leaving, from exhaustion.
Two days afterwards King came upon a native
gunyah, and found v. quantity of nardoo which the

blacks had stored there. He rested two days, and
then returned to Cooper's Creek, where he found the
corpse of Mr. Wills, that unfortunate gentleman
having succumbed to his sufferings in the interval.
King, the only survivor of the party, soon after fell
in with a party of natives, and remained with them
until Mr. Howitt came up. Such are the leading
features of th© incidents connected with the lament-
able history of the explorers after their return from
having solved the great geographical problem which
has cost many valuable lives and an immense
amount of treasure in attempts to unravel it. The
continent of Australia has been traversed through-
out its extent, but of the heroic men who accom-
plished this tremendous task, only one survives.
The following are the last lines written by Wills
previous to his death, and apparently after he had
been left by Burke and King :

Friday, 26th June (sic).—Clear cold night, slight
breeze from the E., day beautifully warm and plea-
sant ; Mr. Burke suffers greatly from the cold, and
is getting extremely weak, he and King start to-
morrow up the Creek to look for the blacks, it is the
only chance we have of being saved from starvation.
I am weaker than ever (sac), although I have a good
appetite, and relish the nardoo much, but it seems
to give us no nutriment, and the birds here are so
shy as not to be got at. Even (sic) if we got a good
supply of
.fish I doubt whether we could do much
work on them and the nardoo alone. Nothing (sic)
but the greatest good luck can now save any of us ;
and as for myself, Imay live four or five days if the
weather continues warm. My pulse is at 48, and
very weak, and my legs and arms are nearly skin
and bone. I can only look out, like Mr. Micawber,
" for something to turn up," but starvation on nar-
doo is by no means very unpleasant, but for the
weakness one feels, and the utter inability to move
oneself, for as far as appetite is concerned it
gives me the greatest satisfaction. Certainly, fat
and sugar would be more to one's taste, in fact,
those seem to me to be the great stand by for one
in this extraordinary continent; not that I mean
to depreciate the farinacious food, but the want of
auger and fat in all substances obtainable here is
so great that they become almost valueless to us as
articles of food, without the addition of something
else.

The subjoined extract from Mr. Burl e's diary
shows the painful position to which the party were
reduced

Return party from Carpentaria arrived here last
night, and found that the D. party had started on
the same day. We proceeded slowly down the creek
towards Adelaide by Mount Hopeless, and shall
endeavour to follow Gregory's track, but we are
very weak, the camels are done up, and we shall
shall not be able to travel faster than five miles a
day at most. Gray died on the road from hunger
and fatigue. We all suffered much from hunger,
but the provisions left here will I think restore our
strength. We have discovered a practicable route
to Carpentaria, the principal portion of which lies
in the 140th meridian of east longitude. Between
this and the Stony Desert there is some good coun-
try; from there to the tropic the country is dry and
stony ; between the tropic and Carpentaria a consi-
derable portion is rangy, but it is well watered and
richly grassed.
We give the subjoined extract from Mr. Howitt's
journal, as showing when he fell in with King, the
only survivor of the expedition.
At the lower end of the large reach of water be.
fore mentioned I met Sandy and Frank looking for
me, with the intelligence that King, the only sur-
vivor of Mr. Burke's party, had been found. A
little farther on I found the party halted, and im-
mediately went across to the blacks' wurleys, where
I found King sitting in a hut which the natives
had made for him. He presented a melancholy
appearance, wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be
distinguished as a civilised being, but by the
remnants of clothes upon him. He seemed
exceedingly weak, and I found it occasionally diffi-
cult to follow what he said. The natives were all
gathered round, seated on the ground, looking with
a most gratified and delighted expression. Camped
where the party had halted on a high bank, close
to the water. I shall probably be here ten days to
recruit King before returning.
Camp 32, 16th September.—King already looks
vastly improved, even since yesterday, and not like
the same man. Have commenced shoeing horses
and preparing for our return. Wind from S.W.,
with signs of rain. The natives seem to be getting
ready for it.
Camp 32, 18th Sept.—Left camp this morning
with Messrs. Brahe, Welch, Wheeler, and King, to
perform a melancholy duty which has weighed on
my mind ever since we camped here, and which I
have only put off until King should be well enough
to accompany us. We proceeded down the creek
for seven miles, crossing a branch running to the
southward, and followed a native track leading to
that part of the creek where Mr. Burke, Mr. Wills,
and King camped after their unsuccessful attempt
to reach Mount Hopeless and the northern settle-
ments of South Australia, and where poor Wills
died. We found the two gunyahs pretty much as
King had described them, situated on a sandbank
between two waterholes, and about a mile from the
flat where they procured the nardoo seed, on which
they managed to exist so long. Poor Wills's re-
mains we found lying in the wurley in which he
died, and where King after his return from seeking
for the natives, had buried him with sand and
rushes. We carefully collected the remains, and
interred them where they lay ; and not having a
Prayer-book, I read chap. v. of 1 Corinthians,
that we might at least feel a melancholy satis-
faction in having shown the last respect to his
remains. We heaped sand over the grave, and
laid branches upon it, that the natives might under-
stand by their own tokens not to disturb the last
repose of a fellow being. I cut the following
inscription on a tree close by to mark the spot :

V. J. WILLS,
XLV. Yns.
W.N.W.
A.H.

The field books, a note book belonging to Mr. Burke,
various small articles lying about, of no value in
themselves, but now invested with interest from
the circumstances connected with them, and some
of the nardoo seed on which they had subsisted,
with the small wooden trough in which it had been
cleaned, I have now in my possession. We returned
home with saddened feelings, but I must confess
that I felt a sense of relief that this painful ordeal
had been gone through. King was very tired when
we returned, and I must most unwillingly defer my
visit to the spot where Mr. Burke's remains are
lying until he is better able to bear the fatigue.
19th September.—Shoeing horses. A very slow
and troublesome job, as many have never been shod
before, and our forge is of the most primitive de-
scription. This afternoon got the pigeons in order
of flying. Their tails being rubbed down by
travelling so far in cages, I got the tails from several
crested pigeons, and inserted feathers in the stumps
of our carriers, fastening the splices with waxed
thread ; the plan answered far better than I had
expected, and the birds can now fly about the aviary
we have made of a tent with the great( at ease.
20th September.—Started the pigeons at day-
break, each with a message fastened to its legs. On
throwing them up they commenced wheeling round
the camp, but separated, one being chased by one
of the large kites which are always hovering about
the creek. After flying round in various directions
with great speed, they gradually drew across the
creek, when we lost sight of them ; the fourth, after
making a large circle, pitched in a tree about half
a mile off. After breakfast he was found under
a bush, with a kite watching him, and the fea-
thers of one of the other pigeons was found
not far off, having been killed. Of the two
others nothing has been seen, and thatlchhopaefraidh
they
got clear away, bitl am mu
the experiment has proved Failure. However,l