252 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



with the description given me by Mr. Carron, I feel confident that they are the 

 remains of Wall and Niblet." 



The remains of Wall and Niblet were carried on by the " Freak " 

 to ALBANY ISLAND, where, on the top of the highest hill at the 

 southern end of the island, they were INTERRED on the I3th May, 

 1849. A tombstone was erected on the spot by Captain Owen 

 Stanley, of H.M.S. "Rattlesnake" who himself died in March, 1850. 



There is abundant evidence that CARRON'S LAST CAMP was 

 pitched, not on Simpson's Hill, at the mouth of the Pascoe, but 

 on Barrett's Hill, two or three miles to the west, near the tributary 

 of the Pascoe River, which the expedition followed down on the 

 9th, loth and nth November, 1848. In this position, the camp, 

 flagstaff and signals cannot have been sufficiently conspicuous to 

 attract attention from the sea. Had it been placed on Simpson's 

 Hill it must have been visible from the " Bramble " when that ship 

 sailed to the south on the 3rd December, to the heartrending dis- 

 appointment of the despairing watchers on the land, and the lives 

 of Mitchell, Wall and Niblet would probably have been saved. 

 It must not, however, be forgotten that Carron's party did not 

 know whether relief was to come by land or sea, and therefore the 

 position of their last camp may have been the result of a com- 

 promise. It is also impossible to say whether they judged the site 

 chosen to have strategical advantages for defence against the savages. 

 Lastly, it is only too likely that the weak and dispirited men had 

 not energy enough to look for a better site and move the camp. 



The touching narratives of the survivors and rescuers give a very 

 clear insight into KENNEDY'S CHARACTER. Unquestionably brave, 

 he was always scrupulously fair and considerate towards his enemies. 

 His plan of operations had been most carefully thought out, but 

 with its cumber of carts and sheep it proved absolutely inapplicable 

 to the country to be traversed ; it is not too much to say that the 

 plan would have been rejected with horror by any man knowing the 

 country, as I for one came to know it later, and as, of course, 

 Kennedy could not have conceived it when he set forth full of 

 confidence in the perfection of his arrangements. Nevertheless, 

 a more reasonable leader would have realised the impossibility of 

 the task under the conditions much earlier than Kennedy did, and 

 would have remodelled his equipment, as he did at last, after men 

 and horses had had all the heart worked out of them before the 

 journey could have been said to have begun. He and nine others 

 paid, in full measure, the penalty of an admirable perseverance 

 which had degenerated into obstinacy. 



The persistence displayed by Kennedy, the inability to bow 

 before the forces of Nature and admit defeat, were closely allied to 

 the piety which distinguished him above other explorers. The 

 heartfelt prayers which ascended from his moving tents every 



