240 DEATH OF WILLS AND BURKE. 



sented, and taking a solemn farewell of their unfortunate comrade, 

 they dragged themselves away with aching hearts. Four or five 

 days afterwards, King returned with some birds he had contrived to 

 kill, but found Wills asleep in the arms of death. King was now 

 alone, for the intrepid Burke had also fallen a victim to the cruel 

 spirit of the wilderness, resting on the barren ground, with his face 

 upturned to the southern stars. The sole survivor was fortunate 

 enough to fall in with the natives, who welcomed him cordially, and 

 earned him with them from camp to camp. After two months and 

 a half of this strange existence, he was discovered by a relief party 

 sent out from Melbourne, under the command of Mr. Howitt (Sep- 

 tember 15, 18G1), who also gathered the remains of the two gallant 

 but ill-fated leaders, and reverently consigned them to a decent grave. 

 They had not died in vain. From the shores of Port Philip to 

 those of the Gulf of Carpentaria they had discovered and marked out 

 a practicable route; and when the great Australian colonies shall 

 have pushed forward into the interior, and have occupied the borders 

 of the northern gulf, they will remember with gratitude the brave 

 explorers who sacrificed their lives to effect the passage from one sea 

 to the other. 



CHAPTER IV. 



VEGETABLE LIFE IN THE AFRICAN PLAINS. 



THE facts actually ascertained in reference to the Flora of the plains 

 of Central Africa, although as yet of a limited character, form as a 

 whole too comprehensive a subject to be fully discussed in these pages. 

 I must, therefore, confine myself to a rapid survey of the principal 

 botanical features of the countries whose general features and physical 

 aspect I have sketched in the preceding chapters. 



Senegambia and Upper Guinea, on the west coast of Africa, form a 



