lxii Appendix. 



We, however, cannot withhold our impression that the evidence 

 of these graves really containing the relics of white men is solely 

 based on the assertions of natives, who did not even themselves 

 witness either the death or the burial of the supposed travellers. 

 The young natives, who led Messrs. Conn and Giles to these burial 

 places, may have received a misconstrued intelligence through the 

 aborigines of other tribes on the subject, not having seen the parties 

 of whites said to have succumbed in this locality under the 

 hands of the savages ; and, notwithstanding the emphatic denial 

 by the black boys, that these graves were those of aborigines, we 

 are inclined to regard them as such, these graves corresponding 

 sufficiently, except perhaps in size, to ordinary native tombs, 

 recorded by Mr. Augustus Gregory as seen in his expedition along 

 Cooper's Creek.* Moreover, no signs of the employment of an axe 

 or other European implement on the wood covering the graves, nor 

 any other vestige giving a clue of Europeans having visited the 

 locality, were observed. 



Did not Messrs. Conn and Giles describe these graves as several 

 years old, at the time they passed the spot in 1861, we would have 

 been induced to consider the place as possibly covering the 

 remains of natives, who were wounded when repelled by Mr. 

 Wright, Dr. Beckler, and Mr. Hodgkinson, in their attack on the 

 camp at the Bulla, an encounter which took place a few months 

 before Messrs. Conn and Giles went to the Unutra Creek ; and the 

 account of this conflict might have been misconceived by the 

 natives. 



Nevertheless, we recommend not only a close investigation of 

 the spot indicated by Messrs. Conn and Giles, and the disinter- 

 ment of the bones for scientific inspection, but more particularly 

 that this inquiry should be connected with an interrogation of 

 the natives occupying the surrounding country, in order to secure 

 the fullest possible information on the origin of these burials. 



Reflecting on the possibility that the graves noticed by Messrs. 

 Conn and Giles might prove the burial places of white men, we are 

 at once led to contemplate from whence and under what circum- 

 stances could the supposed travellers have reached that lonely spot, 

 since no party, as far as we are aware, is missing in that direction. 

 According to Messrs. Conn and Giles' surmise, which is shared 

 by Mr. John Neilson, these graves might perhaps be the last rest- 

 ing places of some members of Dr. Leichhardt's exploring party, 

 and hence we deemed it incumbent on us to weigh the whole 

 evidence hitherto extant of the fate of that great explorer, in order 

 to ascertain, in first instance, how far it bears on the facts im- 

 mediately before us. 



* Vide appended extract of A. Gregory's report, published in the papers 

 of the Legislative Council of New South Wales, 1858, p. 677. 



