The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-07-17
IN THE WILDS OF AUSTRALIA.
The Search for an Explorer Who
Started for Island Continents Inte-
rior More Than Fifty Years ago,

|
ton Of emerging at or near the moutl
of the Swan river, in West Australia
He never reappeared. For more THAI
forty years he has been given up a.
dead For decade other great explor
ations, the achievements of new eXplor
ers and all the great croWding o.
mighty events made men forget suct
an expedition as his ever had been. And
now more than half a century after
his forgotten departure on his brave
quest, the colonies of Australia have
united In furnishing means for deter
mined effort to find him,
For ont of the middle of what still
is the unknown country there has come
a strange story. 1t tells of an old, old
white man living alone with a race OF
bushmen, And those who have studied
| it feel sure than the man is Dr. Lud-
wig Leichardt, who marched westward
from Sydney on February 2S, 1S4S.
Officially, the government under
| whose auspices the searching expedi-
| ton is being formed admits only that
| the hope Is to find some relic of the
fated explorer and his party Govern
ments do not like to admit at any time
that they are pursuing what other
countries might term will o the wisp.
But the fact Is still that this story Of
the lonely old white man Is what Is
at the bottom of the new determination
to trace the route of the Leichardt ex-
petition
Should they succeed in finding this
man, before his story there will pale
all stories that ever have been told of
men buried alive. In the same year
that he disappeared Franklin sailed on
his last voyage for the north pole.
There was no transatlantic cable. Gold
had not been discovered in Australia or
in California, Men were still STRAPPED
and held by bprawny assistants during
surgical operation, for ether had not
been discovered. The sewing machine
was unknown There had been no
Russo-Turkish war, no scivil war. no
Franco-Prussian war. Africa was a
sealed book. Electricity was scarcely
known and its wonders We're unsus-
pected DR.. Leichardt, If he comes
back into civilization alive will be an
old man Che was born in 1879, who,
still is as child awakened, for he will
look on a rev world. No dreamer Of
modern times, no reveler in visions of
to-day, rioting In wild conceptions of
the world Of a thousand years hence,
has imagined such marvels as this bur-
led man will see. And this world win
have seen few such marvels as himself
When DR. Leiehardt first conceived
the wish to- explore Australias inner
wilderness nothing was known about
the continent except its shore line. In
deed, it was not until 1912 that even
this was fully known. He reached sgd
ney In 1871, after having studied sew
eral years In Goettngen, Paris and
London, In order to be well equipped
with all available knowledge for his
After reaching Australia
he lived in the bush for some time to
harden himself, and it was not until
1874 that he started on his first trip. 1t
was from Moreton, on the east coast,
to Port Essington, on the north coast.
and the voyage was full Of hardships.
for food and water gave out while he
was crossing the desert, 1t was De-
eember, 1886 one year and four months
after starting, that he reached his goal.
and when he got back to Sydney ii
was to find that he had been given up
long before as dead, and that his flu
neral had been held. Naturally. he was
received with wild enthusiasm, which
grew when his reports showed that he
had found new land of great wealth.
1t was the territory that now is
Queensland, and 50 deeply We're the
Australians impressed with the value
If his discoveries that they gave him
arge awards, which he used at once for
second voyage, This time his plan
was nothing less than to cross the en- |
ire continent fro meast to west, and in |
S46 he started from Darling Downs |
With provisions for two years. But !
illness and the encouragement among |
lis men forced him to return in the
middle of the following year.
Then the government of New South
Wales fitted him out with splendid |
and on February 2S. 1848.
he started again with three blacks and
our white men. They took with them
lorses, 20 mules and 40 head of cattle.
IN April letter was brought into
'yuicy ny one III Inc DldCkS with the
Jews that all were we'll 1t was dated
rom the Cogun river, and that is the
asst that has ever been heard from DIR.
4eichardt himself
For three years lttleN fear was enter
aimed about him and his companions,
s he had calculated that that length
# time would elapse before he could
each the west coast. When nothing
vas heard from him In the fourth year
fter his departure, Hoveden- Hely tried
0 follow his track, but failed. Then
anne the exciting times of gold finds
n Australia and it was 1855 before two
ravelers, Gregory and Won Mueller,
ried again to find DR.. Leichardt They
nade their way, after incredible hard
hips, to the middle of the continent,
ut were forced then, owing to abso-
lte lack of water, to return without
ny news. They reached the coast in
$50, and their report caused every one
D give up the fate of the lost expedi-
ion as hopeless. 1t was decided that
he Leichardt party had persisted either
rom thirst or hunger, or that one of
ne sudden and terrible floods for which
australia is famous had overtaken
hem.
SO two years passed when strange
ale startled the people of Sydney. In /