THE AUSTRALIAN CONTINENT CROSSED.

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neglecting his health in the pursuit of his professional duties, died here, after finishing a series of drawings of scenery and animal life.* Full and explicit instructions were given to Wright to follow without delay in the track of his leader. Had he done so all would have been well, and not a life would have been lost. As it was, he lingered at Menindie from the 5th of November to the 26th of January, in direct opposition to his orders, and the result of this criminal delay was a terrible tragedy.

Burke and Wills, with six men, fifteen horses, and sixteen camels, pushed on towards Cooper's Creek, and reached their destination without mishap on the 11th of November. Here a number of important explorations in the immediate neighbourhood were made, Burke taking one direction and Wills another. But they were only half-way across the continent, and although health was good and everything was like a long, pleasant pic-nic, the men were panting to be off on the other half of the journey—the half which promised unlimited adventure, and was to solve the possibility of penetrating through the continent from south to north. After waiting a long time for Wright to join them, they grew impatient; the season was slipping away while they were doing nothing, and so they set to work to arrange their plans for pushing northward, whether Wright came up or not. They were confident he would be at Cooper's Creek before long, and his arrival before they started was not essential to them.

On the 16th December, Burke, Wills, King, and Gray, with one horse and six camels, started northwards, leaving at Cooper's Creek Brahe, Paton, McDonough, Dost Mahomed, six camels, and twelve horses. Brahe was to be commander-in-chief until Wright arrived, and the fullest and most explicit instructions were left with him to remain at Cooper's Creek until Burke and his party returned from the Gulf of Carpentaria, and it was anticipated that at least three or four months would elapse before that could take place. The instructions enjoined were that on no account was this reserve party to leave, unless from "absolute necessity."

We will not follow our heroes step by step through their tremendous journey. Day after day they pushed on, with dauntless resolution, through salty swamps and over vast and arid wilds; and Wills, with his observant nature, never passed a bird or plant, or water-hole or sand-ridge, without "making a note of it." His "Field Books" were full, too, of important astronomical observations and surveyor's notes for mapping. By the 30th January they found the ground in such a state from heavy rainfalls that it was impossible to get the camels over it, and it was determined, therefore, that Gray and King should remain where they were, while Burke and Wills should push forward on foot, leading the horse. A fearful journey they had: again and again the horse was "bogged " in interminable marshes, and was extricated only by supreme exertion; rains and storms and the roughest of roads had to be encountered; but the brave men were rewarded for all the toil and the peril by penetrating successfully through the vast wilds of the interior, until at last they reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. The mystery was solved; the astounding feat which mortal man had never before succeeded in performing, of passing through that vast continent from south to north, was accomplished; all the important ends of the expedition were gained; and with thankful hearts they turned their

* These beautiful little drawings are now in possession of the Royal Society, Melbourne.

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 hi friends, and especially to his mother, who frequently urged him to re-consider his dete mination, pleading the danger of the enterprise. An insight into the character of tl man is given in a letter he wrote to her at that time. "The actual danger is nothing, au the positive advantages very great. Besides, my dear mother, what avails your faith if y terrify yourself about such trifles? Were we born, think you, to be locked up in comfor able rooms, and never to incur the hazard of a mishap? If things were at the worst, trust I could meet death with as much resignation as others, even if it came to-night. am often disgusted at hearing young people I know declare that they are afraid of do this or that because they might be killed. Were I in some of their shoes, I should be g 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. forward to test the safety of the road to Cooper's Creek, which had been prom the settlers at Menindie, where he established his first depôt, to be dang conducted them for a hundred miles on the road, and then returne bring up the stores and other things which had been left in charo

of fat in any

ur months of the te that they found was taken for many Aplessness and lassitude. lute, and that was the Creek, where they doubted he party, find ample supplies

repose.

faces again to the south, homeward bound. They dreamt not of defeat now-the peril was over. They had but to follow in the course they had already trodden, avoiding the bad places whenever their experience taught them they could find a better. They had only to re-visit the depôts they had planted on the road until they regained their friends, Gray and King, and then move on together to Cooper's Creek, where ample supplies of all kinds would be ready for them, and no further difficulties would stand in their way. It was well that they could not see what lay before them; well that they could not even

surmise the bitter disappointments, the terrible mortifications, and the agonising deaths awaiting them. They saw only success, and with light hearts set forward on their homeward journey, regained Gray and King, and on the 13th of February cheerfully resumed the toilsome return march, buoyed up with hope and flushed with victory. The rains were incessant, the storms terrific in their violence, the ground so boggy as to be almost impassable, the nights sultry and enervating, but still they pushed on. Many adventures befell them on the way-adventures with snakes, adventures with the natives, adventures in difficult passes and dangerous morasses. On the 6th March one of their camels had to be left behind, completely done up in the service; a fortnight later 60 lbs.

weight of things from their packs had to be abandoned; then Gray fell ill of dysentery, and on the 8th of April died. After his attack he was not able to speak a word distinctly, and he passed away under circumstances extremely painful. The party tarried for one day to bury their comrade, but they were all so weak it was with extreme difficulty they were able to dig a grave sufficiently deep to bury him in. Some time after this one of the camels and the horse "Billy" died of starvation; the bodies were cut up and the

meat "jerked," but it was found to be without the slightest trace of fat in any portion. All the men were as nearly as possible used up. They had had four months of the most severe travelling and privation, and were in such an exhausted state that they found it a most trying task to walk for even a few yards. Not a step was taken for many days except in the most intense pain, and with a sense of utter helplessness and lassitude. There was only one thing that kept them alive and resolute, and that was the knowledge that in a day or two they would reach Cooper's Creek, where they doubted not they would meet Brahe and Wright and the rest of the party, find ample supplies for all their wants, and be able to indulge in well-earned repose.