LEICHHARDTS OVERLAND EXPEDITION 199 



luxuriant growth of unverifiable legend which has gathered around 

 his statements and opinions. 



Leichhardt's FOURTH, and last, EXPEDITION set out from 

 " BIRRELL'S STATION on the CONDAMINE " in March, 1848. Its 

 only record is contained in a short letter, dated 3rd April, from 

 " MACPHERSON'S STATION on the COGOON," L in which he states 

 that he had travelled to that station, via MOUNT ABUNDANCE, in 

 eleven days. The rest is silence. 



The party consisted of LEICHHARDT, BOECKING, CLASSEN, 

 HENTIG, STUART, KELLY, and two BLACK BOYS. Boecking, who had 

 been cook on the second expedition, was the only white man who 

 had been with Leichhardt before. BUNCE makes the significant 

 statement that he and other members of the second expedition 

 had agreed to join the fourth on certain conditions to which 

 Leichhardt had agreed at the conclusion of the second expedition, 

 but which he repudiated on his return from Sydney. We can only 

 conjecture that the disputed stipulations referred, inter alia, to 

 food, medicines and remuneration. Bunce's words regarding the 

 " stipulations " are : " They were such as we humbly conceived 

 to be of the greatest importance to the success of the expedition." 



From the mass of documents relating to Leichhardt's prepara- 

 tions, I carry away the impression that he was short of funds, and 

 that what appeared mean and parsimonious to the men who were 

 prepared to share his adventures and privations, may have been 

 forced upon him by pecuniary considerations, added to, of course, 

 by his desire to TRAVEL LIGHT, and TRUST TO LUCK for game and 

 vegetable foods. It appears also, according to Bunce, that 

 Leichhardt held some faddist theory that men could train them- 

 selves to dispense with farinaceous food. 



As on his second expedition, LEICHHARDT'S GOAL on his fourth 

 and last was the SWAN RIVER SETTLEMENT (Perth, Western Australia). 

 He is known to have entertained theories as to the northward 

 extension of the supposed " Great Australian Desert," which 

 would naturally lead him to the north of a direct westerly course. 

 Many conjectures have been made regarding his route, some even 

 supposing that he would make for the Gulf of Carpentaria before 

 turning to the south-west. Several SEARCH PARTIES tried to solve 

 the mystery of his fate ; none of them, however, met with any 

 success, except, perhaps, Mr. (afterwards SIR) AUGUSTUS GREGORY'S, 

 who, in April, 1858, discovered traces of what may have been ONE 

 OF LEICHHARDT'S CAMPS on the upper waters of the BARCOO RIVER 

 between the modern townships of Tambo and Blackall, and, 

 perhaps, Duncan Macintyre of Glengower's. 



Macintyre, who had made a journey down the Flinders to the 

 Gulf of Carpentaria towards the end of the year 1864, reported on 



1 Now better known as Muckadilla Creek. It runs south-eastward from Muckadilla 

 railway station and falls into the Balonne River about fifty miles south of Roma. 



