496 Appendiv I. 



mission of entirely crossing the Australian Continent from south to 

 north. He at once retraced his steps, and arrived at the depot in 

 Cooper's Creek on April 21, accompanied by Wills and King, Gray 

 having died a fcAV da^^s before. They found that Brahe had quitted his 

 post that very morning, and started for the Darling, leaving some pro- 

 visions buried at the foot of a tree, on which he had cut an inscription 

 indicatiiig the fact. The exhausted explorers debated what they had 

 best do. Wills and King wished to make for Menindie ; but Burke, 

 thinking that, weak as they were, it was hopeless to try to overtake 

 Brahe, decided to push for the nearest settled districts of South Aus- 

 tralia, distant about 150 miles. This they did on April 23, having left 

 a note in Brahe's cache, but without adding anything to his inscription 

 on the tree, or leaving any distinct intimation that they had ever been 

 there. But the enterprise was beyond their strength. They were so 

 weak that they could not advance more than five or six miles a day ; 

 their camels knocked up, their provisions ran short ; and, finally, Burke 

 died on July 1st, Wills having succumbed a day or two earlier. King, 

 the sole survivor, fell in with the natives, who treated him kindly ; and 

 he was rescued on September 15 th by a party sent from Melbourne in 

 search of him, under the guidance of Mr. Howitt. 



" AYe must now return to Mr. Wright, and see how he carried out the 

 instructions given him by his chief. Mr. Burke, as we have already 

 said, sent him back to Menindie on October 31, 1860 ; and he reached 

 that place on November 5. Here, in the teeth of Burke's orders to bring 

 the rest of the party on to Cooper's Creek icithout delay, he remained 

 inactive until January 26, 1861, when he appears to have moved north- 

 ward. He never, however, got further than BuUo, a place about sixty 

 miles south of Cooper's Creek, where JMr. Brahe fell in with him on 

 April 29, and at once placed himself under his orders. Two da3's later 

 Yv-^right left BuUo, and moved a few miles further south, " not seeing the 

 utility of pushing on the depot to Cooper's Creek for the purpose of re- 

 maining there the few weeks their stores would last." On May 3, at 

 Brahe's suggestion, Wright and he returned to the depot on Cooper's 

 Creek, taking no stores with them. They remained there a quarter of 

 an hour, did not examine the cache, and then, seeing no signs of Burke 

 having been there, rejoined the rest of their part}', and made their way 



