But he had conquered; his indomitable pluck had carried him through the desolate land of thirst and starvation; and he had done it with the simple, honest determination to prove those theories correct in which he had himself been a disbeliever.

In after-life Eyre had many other strange adventures, and in connection with the Jamaica outbreak of 1865, and the measures he took, as Governor, to repress it, his name became known throughout the world. Opinions differed then, as they do to this day, as to his conduct on that occasion; but as regards his adventurous exploration to pierce the centre of Australia, and afterwards to open up a pathway of communication between the southern and western colonies, no one can doubt that John Edward Eyre gained for himself the honourable title of a Hero.

In 1860 an anonymous donor offered, in the Melbourne Argus, the sum of £1,000 to induce the Government and others to raise a fund for an exploring expedition into the interior of Australia, to follow up the researches of Leichardt, Sturt, Eyre, Mitchell, and Oxley.

The necessary funds-that is to say, over £9,000-having been promptly supplied, the expedition was duly organised, and placed under the command of Robert O'Hara Burke, an enterprising and courageous man, who had seen something of adventurous life, and was eager to see more. He was born in Galway in 1821, and early in life entered as a cadet in the Woolwich Academy, from whence he removed to Belgium for the completion of his military education. He obtained a lieutenancy in the Austrian service (7th Reuss Regiment Hungarian Hussars), but finding the life monotonous, he relinquished his commission in 1848 and returned to Ireland, where he was appointed to the Irish Mounted Constabulary. But as this kind of life was not quite to his mind, and the prospects were not sufficiently wide for his ambition, he emigrated to Australia in 1853, and became Acting Inspector of Police in Melbourne, to which place several of the men who had served under him in Ireland accompanied him, in the hope that they might still serve under one who had endeared himself to them. When the stirring news of the outbreak of the Crimean War reached Australia, it fired the imagination of Burke, who was a brave and true man, covetous of honour and careless of profit. Eager to take part in the conflict, he returned to England for that purpose, but he arrived too late. So he went back again to Australia, and at the time of his arrival there the project for a further exploration into the interior of the country was under discussion. Burke entered the lists without delay; and although there were many applicants for the honour of leading the expedition, it was, as we have said, conferred upon him, and heartily he threw himself into the spirit of the undertaking, even going forthwith into pedestrian training in order to put himself into proper condition for the work.

The exploring party, as originally constituted, was as follows:-Burke, commander ; Mr. G. J. Landells (superintendent of the camels), second in command; William John Wills, surveyor, astronomer, and meteorologist, third in command; Dr. Herman Beckler, botanist and medical officer; Dr. Ludwig Becker, artist, naturalist, and geologist; C. F. Ferguson, foreman; and Thomas McDonough, William Paton, Patrick Langan, Owen Cowan, William Brahé, Robert Fletcher, John King, Henry Creher, John Dickford, Dost Mahomed

START OF THE BURKE AND WILLS EXPEDITION.

129

(a Sepoy), and two natives, Belooch and Botan, assistants. Cooper's Creek was selected as the base of operations, where a large depôt of provisions was to be established to fall back upon in case of need.

ROBERT O'HARA BURKE." (Drawn by William Strutt, Painter of the original Portrail.)

It was a gay day in Melbourne when, on the 20th of August, 1860, bells rang, guns fired, banners waved, and lusty voices cheered, as the expedition set forth from the Royal Park, well provided with pack-horses, stores, instruments, waggons, and an imposing

In the background are shown the Royal Park and camel stables.

string of twenty-seven camels. All went well at first; the season was good, the roads in fair condition, and the spirits of all the party were high. But this state of affairs did not last long. Ferguson, the foreman, grew insubordinate, and had to be discharged; then Landells, who had charge of the camels, followed suit, and left the expedition in high dudgeon. Dr. Beckler grew faint-hearted and went away, and then came about a re-organisation of the party. Wills was appointed second in command, and, as the sequel will show, was in every way worthy of the distinction; but, unhappily, a man named Wright, an old settler, but one of whose qualifications nothing previously was known, was selected by Burke to occupy the position of third in command, and to conduct them to Cooper's Creek, 400 miles farther on. To this man are mainly attributable the whole of the disasters of the expedition, while to Wills remains an imperishable memory for his heroic zeal as joint explorer with Burke of the terra incognita between Cooper's Creek and Carpentaria.

William John Wills was no ordinary man. As a child, in his home in Devonshire, he showed proclivities for learning, and an intelligence altogether beyond his years. He was daring without being reckless; and it is recorded by his father that nothing moved him to anger so readily as witnessing any ill-treatment of dumb animals. He was destined to the medical profession, and studied at St. Bartholomew's; but his father proposing to emigrate to Australia when he was in his nineteenth year, young Wills determined to accompany him.

Circumstances prevented the father from carrying out his intentions, but the young man started, endured the hardships of a steerage passage, entered upon the work of a shepherd at £30 per annum, and bore the vicissitudes of colonial experience; but his scientific tastes prevailed, he studied surveying as a means of livelihood and astronomy as a means of recreation, and ultimately obtained a good appointment in the Magnetic Observatory at Melbourne under Professor Neumayer, a position he held with credit to himself, and only relinquished to join what was then called Burke's Expedition.

The news of his intention to join that expedition was very painful to some of his friends, and especially to his mother, who frequently urged him to re-consider his determination, pleading the danger of the enterprise. An insight into the character of the man is given in a letter he wrote to her at that time. "The actual danger is nothing, and the positive advantages very great. Besides, my dear mother, what avails your faith if you terrify yourself about such trifles? Were we born, think you, to be locked up in comfortable rooms, and never to incur the hazard of a mishap? If things were at the worst, I trust I could meet death with as much resignation as others, even if it came to-night. I am often disgusted at hearing young people I know declare that they are afraid of doing this or that because they might be killed. Were I in some of their shoes, I should be glad to hail the chance of departing this life fairly in the execution of an honourable duty."

After the re-organisation of the party, Burke, with Wills and a selected number, set forward to test the safety of the road to Cooper's Creek, which had been pronounced by the settlers at Menindie, where he established his first depôt, to be dangerous. Wright conducted them for a hundred miles on the road, and then returned to Menindie, to bring up the stores and other things which had been left in charge of Dr. Becker, who,