148 AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIANS. 



highly educated and literary man of the two, though 

 both were spirited and full of the true ambition. 



As it had been suspected that there were parched 

 sands and desert wastes through which they must 

 pass to reach the northern coast, camels, twenty-seven 

 in all, had been brought from India to carry through 

 the desert the necessary stores. 



The expedition set out from Melbourne August 20th, 

 1860. They went north a few hundred miles to 

 Cooper's Creek, where they halted for a little, and 

 after consultation erected a station, and stored the 

 greater part of their provisions. Leaving a sufficient 

 number in charge of the stores, the leaders started 

 with one or two others on their perilous and trying 

 journey. The distance to be traversed was much 

 greater, and required much more time, than had been 

 calculated upon by either division of the party. The 

 leaders pushed forward, however, till they succeeded 

 in reaching the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



Long before they reached Cooper's Creek, on their 

 return journey, their water and food supplies were 

 done, and they themselves quite ready to die, not 

 merely from hunger and thirst, but from fatigue, 

 which was enough of itself to have overcome them, 

 even if their supplies had been sufficient. They had 

 been so long absent that the party in charge of the 



