HEROES OF EXPLORATION. 159 



hard rock, and he had no tools. Day after day he plodded on. Had 

 Wylie deserted him he must have perished, for in the boy's quickness in 

 detecting traces of the natives and indications of their 'wells' lay. the only 

 chance of safety. At last, when nearly exhausted, Eyre saw two boats at sea. 

 They belonged to a French whaler. Eyre was taken on board, was well fed, 

 was supplied with stores and ammunition ; and, after a rest of eleven days, he 

 and Wylie continued their journey, and, the country improving, they reached 

 King George's Sound in safety. 



Thirty years after this journey was made it was repeated from the 

 opposite side by Mr. John Forrest, a fine young West Australian explorer, 

 who with a small party passed over it with but little inconvenience or 

 difficulty. Mr. Forrest again and again camped on Eyre's old camping 

 ground, which he recognised at once, and which seemed to have remained 

 undisturbed from the time Eyre and Wylie left it. 



Next comes the tale of the explorer over whose fate a veil of mystery 

 and romance has fallen. In 1844 Ludwig Leichardt was an eager young 

 German botanist. He set his heart upon exploration. His first trip was 

 most successful, as, starting from Sydney, he made his way to the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria, and discovered many of the fine rivers of Northern Queensland. 

 So much enthusiasm was occasioned by these revelations of a grand country 

 in tropical Australia that the Sydney people subscribed ^1500 for Leichardt, 

 and the Government presented him with ^1000. After a short trip of seven 

 months in the Queensland bush, Leichardt organised an expedition to cross 

 Australia from west to east, a feat which no man has yet performed, though 

 explorers from the west have met the tracks of those coming from the east. 

 His party consisted of H. Classen, six white men, and two blacks, with cattle 

 and sheep. His last letter, which was dated from McPherson's Station, 

 Cogoon, April 3rd, 1848, concluded in the following words: 'Seeing how 

 much I have been favoured in my present progress, I am full of hopes that 

 our Almighty Protector will allow me to bring my darling scheme to a 

 successful termination.' 



The hope was not realised. He has been tracked to the banks of the 

 Flinders, in Northern Australia, but his fate is unknown. The disappearance 

 of his party has been absolute, and the Australian imagination has dwelt long, 

 anxiously and lovingly upon the mystery. No theory has been so wild but 

 that it has found some eager adherents ; every straw of hope has been 

 grasped at. Expedition after expedition has sallied forth to rescue the living 

 or to bury the dead, but all in vain : the tales have proved false, and slowly 

 hope has faded away. 



The explanation now generally accepted is that the party was surprised 

 in low country by some tropical flood, in which all perished. A capital 

 bushman, Leichardt was not likely to starve. And if he had died from 

 thirst, or if he had been murdered by the natives, some of his animals 



