238 EXPEDITION OF BURKE AND WILLS 



The problem remained: to cross the central wilderness of Aus- 

 tralia, and prove the possibility of a passage from the southern shores 

 to the northern, from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. This 

 problem was finally solved, at no light cost, by the intrepid Burke 

 and energetic Wills. 



On the 20th of April 1860, there set out from Melbourne, under 

 the auspices of the Government of Victoria, a small troop of gallant 

 explorers, under the immediate direction of Robert O'Hara Burke, a 

 man well-fitted for his post: born in the county of Gal way in 1821, 

 after having served as captain in a Hungarian regiment, he had 

 discharged for several years the duties of inspector of a body of the 

 colonial police. 



The second in command was a brave young Englishman, William 

 John Wills, twenty-six years of age, an assistant in the Observatory 

 at Melbourne. 



The expedition consisted of eighteen persons, and was provided 

 with horses, camels which had been expressly imported from Arabia, 

 waggons, all kinds of scientific instruments, and the necessary amount 

 of stores and provisions for a protracted journey. 



Cooper's Creek, which marked about a third of the whole dis- 

 tance, was fixed upon as place of rendezvous and as the final start- 

 ing-point. Thither, to save time, Burke and Wills, with six men, 

 six camels, five horses, and some months' provisions, proceeded in 

 advance of the main body ; and arriving there on the 13th of Decem- 

 ber, Burke established a depot, left it in charge of Brahe', a petty 

 officer, and three assistants, and with Wills, a couple of men (King 

 and Gray), the camels, and one horse, plunged on the 16th into the 

 trackless Australian wilds.* 



Keeping nearly due north, and near or upon the meridian of 

 140 E., they traversed, day after day, well- watered plains, with 

 numerous clumps of wood, and tolerable indications of a good 

 grazing country. On the 12th of February 1861, the four travellers 

 had conquered every obstacle, and struck the marshes on the Albert 

 * Journal of W. J. Wills, in locis. 



