INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 29 



to accompany me in my excursions from the depot. Then, on the 

 25th of September, we tm-ned our faces homewards to restore King 

 to civilisation, and to the recognition of his faithful services to his less 

 fortunate companions. 



At the time when I returned to Menindie with King there were 

 search parties out, and it was deemed necessary to provide a central 

 depot with supplies for any of them who might come in to the Cooper. 



I was again selected to be the leader of the party, to form a depot, 

 to open up a line of communication with the northern settlements of 

 South Australia, to carry out such explorations as would not cause an 

 absence from the depot of more than a month, and, finally, to bring 

 down the remains of Burke and Wills in order that they might receive 

 the honor of a public funeral and monument. 



This time I slightly varied my route, starting from Mount Miir- 

 chi.son, now called Wilcannia. 



While we were preparing to leave the Darling it unfortunately 

 happened that Mr. Welch, my second in command and the surveyor 

 to the expedition, became almost blind by an accident when taking an 

 observation of the sun, and had to leave the party and return to Mel- 

 bourne. Not only was this a great loss to the party, but we regretted 

 losing a good comrade, who had proved his worth on our search 

 expedition. There was no time to replace him by another qualified 

 officer, but, fortunately, I knew enough of navigation to take the neces- 

 sary sidereal observations to plot my route and delineate the features 

 of the country through which we might be travelling. Taking warning 

 by what had happened, I taught two of my most trusted men — Weston 

 Phillips and Alexander Aitkin — to keep a dead reckoning and to take 

 observations, so that if any accident happened to me the expedition 

 would not be left without someone who could bring it back safely. 



In my reminiscences of those times there are two which I may 

 mention as showing the varied kind of interest which was felt in my 

 expedition. One person gravely recommended-^as the great difficulty 

 in exploring the interior seemed to be the scarcity of water— that a 

 pumping plant should be erected at Menindie, by which water could 

 be supplied to my party through a hose, which we were to carry with 

 us and uncoil as we progressed, and thus obtain a water supply at any 

 time by merely turning it on ! Another suggestion was that we should 

 carry with us some. carrier pigeons, and, as the proposer offered to supply 

 the pigeons, we took them. They travelled to Cooper's Creek in a 

 wicker cage, and arrived there safely, excepting that their tail feathers 

 were rubbed down to stumps. However, when King was found, and 



