for the year 1864. lxxiii 



Bralie*, having joined Mr, Wright, returned with him to 

 Cooper's Creek on the 8th of May, so as to get a further chance 

 of seeing if the party had returned from Carpentaria, but 

 they found everything exactly as Brahe described to Wright 

 his having left it ; and the latter who was an excellent bush- 

 man seeing the ashes and camel marks, &c, was convinced 

 that no natives could have disturbed the cache, and as the 

 notice on the tree was not interfered with, it seemed no 

 white man had been there ; and so not wishing to disturb 

 the cache, and having nothing further to add to the previous 

 notice, they returned to bring the remainder of their parties 

 now suffering from sickness, back to the settlements ; and 

 when Burke and his companions shortly after again came to 

 Cooper's Creek they did not recognise any sign of their visit 

 which might have cheered them to exertions to follow even 

 then the tracks homeward towards Menindie. When Brahe's 

 news came of the non-arrival of Burke within a time to which 

 the provisions he took with him could have lasted his party, 

 the Exploration Committee immediately eqtripped several re- 

 lief parties; H.M.C.S.S. Victoria, under Commander Norman, 

 was dispatched to the Gulf of Carpentaria, to make search 

 by boats up all the rivers on the banks of which Burke 

 might be, and to convey horses and stores for a land party, 

 under Mr. Landsborough, to form a depot on the Albert 

 Biver, and follow any tracks of Burke until he was found. 

 At the same time a party of native black mounted trackers 

 was dispatched, under Mr. Walker, to search north from 

 Queensland in hopes of meeting the travellers if they were 

 coming that way. While the South Australian Government 

 aided promptly by sending the party under M'Kinlay to 

 search the northern districts of South Australia, in case the 

 Victorian Expedition might have taken that direction ; and 

 finally, a party with large stores was dispatched from Mel- 

 bourne, under Mr. Alfred Howitt, to replenish the depot at 



