The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-20 00:00:00

LITERA7 URE.

Burke and the Australian Exploring Expedition of
1860. By Andrew Jackson. Smith, Elder, and
Co., Cornhill.

On the list of those who have fallen victims in
the cause of geographical discovery the names of
Burke and Wills deserve, and will hold, a distin-
guished place. To them we are indebted for a
knowledge of a large portion of the Australian con-
tinent, which had hitherto baffled the efforts of ex-
plorers, but which now proves to be well watered,
fertile, and admirably adapted for pastoral and
grazing purposes. The expedition, of which Robert
O'Hara Burke was the leader, left Melbourne
on the 20th of August, 1860, and appears to have
been amply provided with everything necessary for
the journey. Camels had been imported from India
for the occasion, a private subscription, amounting
to three thousand two hundred pounds, had been
raised, and a sum of six thousand pounds had been
voted by the Legislature towards the expenses :
the whole being placed at the disposal of a com-
mittee of the Royal Society of Victoria, of which
Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.8., Governor of the Colony,
was president. Next in command to Mr. Burke
was Mr. Landells, to whom had been entrusted the
importation of the camels; and the third officer of
the expedition was Mr. W. J. Wills, of tho Mel-
bourne Observatory. In addition to these a medi-
cal adviser and botanist was chosen in Dr. Herman
Beckler, and Dr. Ludwig Becker served as artist,
naturalist, and geologist. Altogether the party
consisted of fifteen persons; provisions and stores
to the value of nearly £5,000 were supplied, and all
available information likely to be of service to the
explorers had been collected prior to their depar-
ture. Nothing, in short, was omitted that seemed
likely to conduce in any way t 3 the success of the
expedition. At Menindie, however, about 400
miles from Melbourne, the first difficulty arose, a
prologue, in fact, to a series of mishaps which was
to cost the leaders their lives; Mr. Landells, the
second in command, declined to submit to
Ur. Burke's authority, resigned, and his
example was followed by Dr. Beckler, the
medical officer. Thus deprived of two of the most
important members of the party, Mr. Burke was
forced to avail himself of the services of a Mr
Wright, and having left part of the expedition at
Menindie he proceeded with the remainder, under
Wright's guidance, as far as Cooper's Creek, some
four hundred miles further on. Here, unwilling
to embarrass himself with more followers
and baggage than was absolutely necessary, he
again divided his party, determining to take
with him for the purpose of exploration only
Wills, with two men named Gray and King ; leav-
ing the remainder at Cooper's Creek to form a de-
pot, under the charge of a Mr. Brahe, with strict
injunctions not to leave unless compelled by abso-
lute necessity. Then, having made Wright third
officer of the expedition, he sent him back to
Menindie with orders to bring on the remainder of
the stores to Cooper's Creek without delay, so that
on the return there of the exploring party they
might find at once all they required. But unfortu-
nately Wright proved utterly unfit for the respon-
sible position in which he was placed. Instead of
leaving Menindie at once he lingered about for more
than three months; in fact, until Brahe had been
himself forced to leave Cooper's Creek through the
illness of his men. Thus Burke on his return was
deprived of the assistance he so much needed, the
consequences of which were fatal both to himself
and Wills. The object of Burke, when he left
Melbourne, was to cross the continent from sea to
sea by proceeding to the Gulf of Carpentaria on the
northern coast. This ho accomplished suceessfully.
He did not, it is true, obtain a sight of the open
sea, in consequence of the swampy nature of the
ground near that part of the coast, but he, with his
party, proceeded sufficiently far down the Flinders
River to find that the tide ebbed and flowed with,
regularity, and that the water was quite salt; and
they then decided on returning. They were
now obliged to reduce the allowance of pro-
visions, and they had, on first turninbbu'tth three
home-
wards, five camels and a horse,
latter they
of the former as well as the latter
were obliged to kill, on account of
knocked up. Two of the party
mels as much as
the to their
walked, gettinga nd
two rode, order to spare
fall ill, he got
possible. Gray was the
r days before the party
gradually worse, and
_foeu
reached Cooper's Creek So weak wore the
A scarcely able to dig his
survivors that they wer- • halt day
first
obliged toa whole
they pushed on
grave, indeed they
for that purpose-
Burke rode one of the camels,
d King the other. The poor animals,
thirty miles.
Mr. Wills an
denbtless, did then'
best, imagining that they, too

' were approaching a land of plenty. Mr. Burke was
a little in advance ; and it is touching to read how
he often said, ,‘ I think I see their tents a-head; '
how he called out the names of his men several
times, fondly expecting to hear their voices in
reply; but not receiving any answer, supposed that
they must have merely shifted to some other part
of the creek. Alas ! on arriving in the evening at
the depot, to their consternation, they found it de-
serted. On the morning of that very day, the
hearts of the men left at Cooper's Creek had yielded
to fears for their own safety, and they were gone !"
Despairing, in their exhausted state, of being able
to overtake Brahe, or to reach Menindie, which Wds
400 miles distant, they decided on striking off to
the right, and attempting to get as far as Mount
Hopeless, about 150 miles off, and where they could
have obtained succour. Accordingly, having in-
creased their store of provisions, by the addition of
some which had been left by Brahe, and still having
two camels, they left Cooper's Creek on the second
day after their arrival. But shortly after one of
the camels, unfortunately, got bogged by the side
of a water hole, and, finding it impossible to get
him out, they were obliged to shoot him, and in a
few days the other also was knocked up, and
shared the same fate. They were now obliged to
live upon fish, when they could fall in with the na-
tives, and get a supply, and upon a kind of
flour made of nardoo seed, but the diet did not
agree with them. They were worn out with
fatigue, and Wills, unable to move, was left in a
hut, with a small store of nardoo flour, while
Burke and King left to try to get assistance from
the natives. The _entry respecting this, made by
Wills in his diary, was as follows:—" Mr. Burke
and King are preparing to go up the creek in
search of the blacks. They will leave me some
nardoo, wood, and water, with which I must do the
best I can until they return. I think this is
almost our only chance. I feel myself, if anything,
rather better, but I cannot say stronger. The
nardoo is beginning to agree better with me ; but,
without some change, I see little chance for any of
us. They have both shown great hesitation and
reluctance with regard to leaving me, and have re-
peatedly desired my candid opinion in the matter.
I could only repeat, however, that I considered it
our only chance, for I could not last long on the
nardoo, even if a supply could be kept up:;" and in
his last entry he says " Starvation on nardoo 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 ex-
traordinary continent. Not that I mean to depre-
ciate the farinaceous food, but the want of sugar
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."
On the second day after leaving Wills, Burke was
obliged to give up. "He walked till he dropped,"
and he died on the following morning; King re-
maining with him to the last, and leaving him, at
his desire, unburied, with his pistol grasped in his
right hand. After Burke's death King found a
stock of nardoo belonging to the natives,and having
remained two days to recover his strength, he re-
turned to Mr. Wills. But he also was dead, and
King, after burying the corpse with sand, went in
search of the natives, shooting crows and hawks on
the road. Hearing the report of his gun, the natives
came to meet him, took him with them to their camp,
gave him nardoo and fish, and cooked for him the
birds he had shot. They appeared to feel great
compassion for him when they understood that he
was alone on the creek, and gave him plenty to cat.
"They were very anxious, however," he says, " to
know where Mr. Burke lay ; and one day, when
we were fishing in the water-holes close by, I took
them to the spot. On seeing his remains, the whole
party wept bitterly, and covered them with bushes.
After this they were much kinder to me than be-
fore, and I always told them that the white men
would be hero before two moons; and in the even-
ing, when they came with. Rastlea -and.fish, they
used to talk about the white fellows' coming, and
the same time pointing to the moon. I also told
them they would receive many presents, and they
constantly asked me for tomahawks, called by them
bomagho.' From this time to when the relief
party arrived, a period of about a month, they
treated me with uniform kindness, and looked upon
me as one of themselves." Meanwhile Brahe, hav-
ing quitted the depot at Cooper's Creek just seven
hours before Burke and his party returned, jour-
neyed south with his men for seven days, when he
joined Wright's party, and the two leaders went
back by themselves to Cooper's Creek to see if there
were any indications of Burke having visited it.
Not discovering any, as they imagined, they left
the spot and returned to the Darling, whence
Brahe went on to Melbourne to report proceedings.
A meeting of the committee was at once held, and
no time was lost in sending out a relief party under
the leadership of Mr. Hewitt ; in addition to which
another plirty was sent round in a steamer to the
northern coast, and several search parties were de-
spatched by the neighbouring colonies. Mr.
Hewitt, however, proceeded to Cooper's Creek, met
with indications of 13urke's track, and shortly after,
King, the only survivor of Mr. Burke's party, was
found. " A little further on," says Mr. Hewitt,
" I found the party halted, and immediately went
across to the blacks' wurleys, where I found King
sitting in a hut which the blacks had made for him.
He presented a melancholy appearance—wasted to
a shadow, and hardly to be distinguished as a civi-
lised being but by the remains of clothes upon him.
He seemed exceedingly weak, and I found it occa-
sionally difficult to follow what he said. The na-
tives were all gathered round, seated on the ground,
looking with a most gratified and delighted expres-
sion." After searching for and interring the ,r4e-
mains of Burke and Wills, Mr. Howitt prepare" Lo..
return ; but before leaving he determined to roward
the natives for their kindness to Burke and his
companions. Accordingly, having found thorn, for
,
they had disappeared two days after
at last got them," he says, cc all seated before me,
and distributed the presents—tomahawks, knives,
combs—'among them. I
necklaces, looking-glasses, coniba— before, and it
think no people were ever so. happy
they pointed outas
,py
was very interesting to see how
might be eve
-
r
one or another who they
twougere brought forward
looked. The piccaninnies
ribbon tied round their
by their parents to haovenre
eodld woman, Carrawaw,
dirty little heads, kind to King, was loaded
who had been particularly
with things. I
divided 501bs. of sugar be-
tween them, each one taking his share in a union-
jack pocket handkerchief, which they were very
proud of. This ,sugar soon found its way into their
mouths; the flour, Albs. of which 1
gave them,
00, called " white fellow nardoo," and
they at
they explained that they understood that these
things were
given them ' for having fed Ring. Some
old
clothes were then put on some of the men and
w0u,,0, and the affair ended in several of our party
and several of the black fellows having an im-
promptu corroboree; to the intense delight of
the natives, and. I must say, very much to our own
amusement. They left, making signs expressive of
friendship, and carrying their presents with them.
The men all wore a net girdle ; and of the women,
some wore one of leaves, others of feathers. I feel
confident that we have left the best impression be-
hind us, and that the white fellows,' as they have
already learned to call us, will be looked on hence-
forth as friends, and that, in case of emergency,
any one will receive the kindest treatment at their
hands." Thus terminated the last, probably, of
the exploring expeditions requiring an extensive
organisation, but which perfectly fulfilled its object
notwithstanding the unlucky fate of its leaders.
Through it the road to millions of fertile acres has
been thrown open to the colonists; and wherever
the English language is spoken, this record of the
endurance and sufferings of the brave men compos-
ing it will be read with the deepest interest,