LEICHHARDTS OVERLAND EXPEDITION 197 



It is not within the scope of our subject to follow the fortunes 

 of the expedition from the GULF TO PORT ESSINGTON, which was 

 reached on ijth December, 1845. At the small settlement, the 

 party were entertained for a month by the Commandant, Captain 

 Macarthur. The schooner " Heroine" Captain Mackenzie, con- 

 veyed the party, via Torres Strait and the inner passage, to SYDNEY, 

 where they arrived on 29^ March, and were accorded an enthusiastic 

 welcome. 



LEICHHARDT'S SECOND EXPEDITION had for its object the 

 crossing of the continent from BRISBANE TO THE " SWAN RIVER 

 SETTLEMENT " (now Perth). Having collected funds and made 

 other necessary preparations, he LEFT MELBOURNE in September, 

 1846. The expedition was, like the first, mobilised at JIMBOUR, 

 which was left on jth December. The party comprised LEICHHARDT, 

 DANIEL BUNCE (Botanist and Naturalist), JOHN F. MANN (Drafts- 

 man), HOVENDEN HELY, JAMES PERRY (Saddler), HENRY BOECKING 

 (Cook), TURNBULL (Assistant Storekeeper) and WOMMAI (or 

 Jimmy) and " HARRY BROWN " (both aboriginals). 



The progress of this second expedition is mainly to be followed 

 in BUNCE'S " NOTES FROM TRAVELS WITH DR. LEICHHARDT " and 

 MANN'S " EIGHT MONTHS WITH DR. LEICHHARDT." 1 Both men 

 had grievances against their leader, and refused to follow him in 

 his subsequent campaigns. This circumstance may have coloured 

 their narratives, but even allowing for such colouring, there seems 

 to be strong grounds for the belief that Leichhardt's PREPARATIONS 

 for a two-years' trip were INADEQUATE beyond all reason or prudence. 

 There was hardly any MEDICINE CHEST, and as for FOOD, Bunce 

 states : 



" The quantity of FLOUR taken was just sufficient to admit of a daily allowance of 

 3J- OUNCES to each man for a period of 8 MONTHS, by which time it was supposed they 

 would have become sufficiently abstemious in their habits to enable them to dispense 

 with that staff of life during the remainder of their journey, which it was expected 

 would terminate in TWO YEARS from that period." 



It is not to be wondered at that the expedition was a fiasco. 



By slow marches, interrupted by long periods of camping in 

 different places, the expedition wound its way to the NORTH- NORTH- 

 WEST. The route of the previous " overland expedition " was 

 followed for the most part, the chief exception being that the head 

 waters of the DAWSON were crossed a little further to the east and 

 the EXPEDITION RANGE was crossed from east to west into the 

 valley of the COMET RIVER. 



EVERYTHING WENT WRONG FROM THE START. Much time was 

 lost in SEARCHING FOR HORSES, mules, cattle, sheep and goats, which 



1 See also Ernest Favenc's History of Australian Exploration, Sydney, 1888, p. 165, 

 and Rev. J. E. Tenison- Woods' History of the Discovery and Exploration of Australia, 

 London, 1865, Vol. II, p. 147. 



