Foreign Notices : — Australia. 327 



ber, till we could obtain an authentic account. Such an account has, however, 

 not yet arrived in England ; but we are enabled to give some particulars from 

 the Literary Gazette of April 2,, by which it appears that this amiable man 

 may, possibly, be yet alive. In the report which first reached England, it was 

 stated that Mr. Cunningham was killed ; but it is most gratifying to learn, that 

 there is no evidence whatever to prove that this has been the case. It ap- 

 pears that, in an early stage of the expedition, Mr Cunningham wandered from 

 the party, in pursuit of plants, near the head of the Bogan river. " After 

 an anxious search," says Major Mitchell, " of twelve successive days, during 

 which period the party halted, his horse was traced till found dead, having 

 still the saddle on, and the bridle in his mouth. It appeared, after losing his 

 horse, he had directed his own steps northward : we traced them into the 

 Bogan, and westward along the bed of that i-iver, for twenty miles, and until 

 they appeared near a recent encampment of natives. There a small portion of 

 the skirt of his coat was found, also some fragments of a map, which had been 

 seen in his possession. There were two distinct tribes of natives on the Bo- 

 gan ; but from those with whom the party had communication we could learn 

 nothing of his fate. Whether Mr. Cunningham really survives, or not," adds 

 the surveyor-general, " his absence has made a melancholy blank in our party, 

 and has certainly caused a serious loss to science. 



The report the surveyor-general gave, upon his return to head-quarters, of 

 the loss of the botanist of his expedition, did by no means satisfy the nume- 

 rous friends of that unfortunate gentleman in the colony. Letters appeared in 

 the colonial prints, calling upon the local authorities to prosecute a farther 

 search for Mr. Cunningham, who, it was firmly believed, from his known be- 

 nevolence of disposition, his conciliatory manners, and philanthropic feeling 

 towards the aborigines in the settled colony, might still exist. The tact he 

 had, on all occasions, so abundantly at command, to influence the savage into 

 whose hands he might at any time fall, in his wanderings in pursuit of plants, by 

 identifying himself with him, and adopting his habits, fully confirmed this hope. 

 A long month, however, elapsed before the colonial government, urged by the 

 pressing and repeated calls of the inhabitants, and by the public prints, thought 

 it necessary to prosecute another enquiry. Sir Richard Bourke, we learn, 

 has now directed another and a stronger party to proceed to the Bogan river, 

 to search far and wide for Mr. Cunningham ; His Excellency conceiving that 

 (as he had heard the story of a white man, named Buckley, a runaway convict 

 of 1803, having been recently discovered at Port Philip, with a numerous 

 body of natives, among whom he had lived thirty-threeyears, and had become 

 an influential chief) it was just possible the colonial botanist might be detained 

 a prisoner by one of the Bogan tribes, and, therefore, might be recovered to 

 civilised society, and to the duties of the appointment he held. The party 

 were to proceed on this interesting service in November last ; and the next 

 arrival from New South Wales may bring us the results of the second search 

 that had been instituted." {Literary Gazette, April 2. 1836.) 



The above account contains nearly all the particulars regarding Mr. Richard 

 Cunningham that are at present (April) known in England. An undoubted 

 authority, however, adds, " I would just correct a little error regarding a date 

 that will be seen at the close of the account in the Literary Gazette: the 

 party despatched in search of Mr. Richard Cunningham (of whom the belief 

 was prevalent in Sydney that he might be still living, and recoverable,) con- 

 sisted of an officer of mounted police, and a detachment of his men ; and 

 they proceeded on that anxious service early in October last (not November) j 

 but, at the date of the last communication from Sydney (the 17th of No- 

 vember), no tidings had been received at head-quarters of their success. We 

 are looking daily for the arrival of ships that left in December, to give us the 

 result of the second search : by which vessels the government will, doubtless, 

 receive despatches to say that Mr. Richard Cunningham still lives, and has 

 been restored to the society of his friends ; or, that evidences were discovered 



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