

. / 1 'STRAL* ISI. I //./. ( '.vy/v'. / TED. 



told fearfully on the explorers. Wills was the first to succumb, and faced his death 

 with wonderful cheerfulness and serenity. A few days afterwards. Burke, feeling his end 

 approaching, begged King to remain with him to the last, and to leave his corpse 

 unburied with his pistol in his hand. His release occurred on the following morning, 

 and poor King was left alone. He set out in search of a native camp, and after 

 wandering about for some days was fortunate enough to find one, and to meet with a 

 hospitable reception. This was towards the end of .June, before which Wright had 

 reached the Darling, and sent despatches to the Exploration Committee in Melbourne 

 explaining the position of affairs. Five relief parties were promptly organized, and started 

 from different points of the Continent in search of the missing men. One of these' 

 parties (led by Mr. A. W. Howitt, a son of William and Mary Howitt), started in 

 June, 1 86 1, to reach the Barcoo from Menindie, gained that River on the 8th of 

 September, and a week afterwards succeeded in finding King under the following circum- 

 stances, the particulars of which are derived from the MS. diary of Mr. Edwin J. 

 \\Ylch, surveyor to the Victorian Contingent Exploration Party, as it was called. On 

 the morning of Sunday, the i5th of September, as the part)' were proceeding along the 

 banks of a creek, their attention was attracted by the shouts and gesticulations of a 

 large body of natives on the other side, who were pointing down the creek, where 



several other blacks appeared to be 

 awaiting the arrival of the ex- 

 plorers. On approaching them Mr. 

 Welch was startled by observing 

 what appeared to be a white man 

 among them. " Giving my horse 

 his head," he writes, " I clashed 

 down the bank towards him, when 

 he fell on his knees in the sand 

 for a few moments in the attitude 

 of prayer. On reaching him I hur- 

 riedly asked, ' Who, in the name of 

 wonder, are you ?' and received the 

 reply, ' I am King, sir, the last man 

 of the exploring expedition.' The 

 party having come in, we halted and 

 camped. King was put in a tent 

 and carefully attended to, and by 

 degrees we got his story from him." 

 The emaciated survivor of the 

 disastrous enterprise is described as 



looking more like; an animated skeleton when he was found than anything else, and as 

 mbhng a blackfellow in almost everything but colour. His narrative was a truly 

 pathetic one. The three explorers on leaving the dtpdt at Cooper's Creek took with 

 them the two camels, both of which, succumbing soon afterwards to privations and fatigue, 

 had to be shot. Their own provisions were speedily exhausted ; their ragged clothing 



w. j. WILLS. 



