198 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



continually strayed. A heavy WET SEASON set in, and the march 

 along alluvial flats on which mud was drying in the sun brought 

 MALARIAL FEVER in its train. By the end of March, 1847, the whole 

 stock of FLOUR had SOURED. Parties of the sick had to be left here 

 and there, the main body having to wait for them to catch up. 

 The individual members of the expedition grumbled and discussed 

 the advisability of retreat, and the leader, himself sick, lost his 

 nerve and displayed the most embarrassing vacillation. 



Bunce's statement that the expedition set out on a two-and-a- 

 half years' trip, with only a starvation allowance of flour for eight 

 months, if true, shows that the leader was rash to the point of 

 criminality. On the other hand, if his followers were aware of 

 the state of affairs from the start (and in handling the loads daily 

 they must have learned the facts in a few days at most), their only 

 course, as sensible men, would have been to refuse to embark on 

 an expedition foredoomed to failure. 



On 22nd June, 1847, LEICHHARDT TURNED BACK from a point on 

 the eastern side of the PEAK RANGE in lat. 22 50' S. (approx.). 

 This was the point from which he had originally planned to strike 

 west for the Swan River, but the hopelessness of the task had become 

 obvious, and the inevitable had to be accepted. 



CHAUVEL'S STATION on the CONDAMINE RIVER, at that time the 

 furthest outpost of civilisation, was reached on 6th July, 1847, 

 and the party was broken up. 



Here Leichhardt heard of the successful termination of SIR 

 THOMAS MITCHELL'S EXPEDITION, and on gth August he set out 

 from HENRY STUART RUSSELL'S STATION, on what may be called his 



THIRD EXPEDITION, accompanied by F. N. ISAACS, JAMES PERRY, 

 DANIEL BUNCE AND WOMMAI (Jimmy), the aboriginal. No difficulty 

 was experienced in reaching and identifying Mitchell's FITZROY 

 DOWNS and GRAFTON RANGE. The route traversed by Leichhardt, 

 indeed, offered no natural obstacles (except black soil in wet 

 seasons) and is now served by the Western Railway. Leichhardt 

 joined lines with Mitchell at MOUNT ABUNDANCE, near Roma, 

 where smiling vineyards now gratify the eye of the tourist. 



Leichhardt returned to JIMBOUR about i^th September, and 

 shortly afterwards went to SYDNEY. His journal of this Third 

 Expedition is given in an Appendix to Bunce's Travels with Dr. 

 Leichhardt, and is also to be found, as edited by the REV. W. B. 

 CLARKE, in Wangles Australian Almanac for 1860. The latter, 

 it may be pointed out, is an instance of the extraordinary media 

 chosen by Clarke for the publication of his writings, which were 

 valuable at the time, and have now become of historical as well 

 as scientific importance. It may well be doubted whether any 

 human being is in possession of Clarke's Omnia Opera, and the 

 fact that somebody vaguely recollected having somewhere seen 

 something written by Clarke is, no doubt, responsible for the 



