lxvi Appendix. 



having ended his luminous career under the circumstances related 

 by the natives. 



We have appended to this report a valuable memorandum from 

 Mr. Giles,* in which he demonstrates from experience, how part of 

 the inscription of one of the trees might have become obliterated by 

 the overgrowth of bark. Otherwise it is difficult to understand why 

 two camps of Leichhardt should bear precisely analogous distinctive 

 marks, unless we suppose that the Roman letters were intended for 

 the day of a month (April t), and that evidently an error had been 

 committed in fixing the date of one of 'the camps. Mr. Giles 

 deserves much credit for the vivid interest he evinced throughout 

 this enquiry, and we share the hopes of his experienced fellow 

 traveller Mr. Conn, of seeing Mr. Giles's services secured for any 

 future enterprise to be organised to find vestiges of Leichhardt, and 

 simultaneously to examine the graves at Unutra. 



Mr. Gideon Lang entertains the opinion that, whilst the numerals 

 indicate the number of the camp, the A, as a convenient letter, was 

 added to distinguish the place from others Leichhardt might be 

 encamped at in any retrograde direction and possible return 

 journey. 



Most important seems to us the assertion of one of the fugitive 

 guides to another of his race, that Mr. Hely had still to cross four 

 creeks ; next, a large plain of three days' travelling distance ; and 

 then again three creeks, before he would arrive at the spot where the 

 disaster occurred. 



The discovery of the extensive natural distribution of gold through 

 South-east Australia at about this period absorbed universal atten- 

 tion, and diverted the thoughts of all colonists so much from other 

 subjects as to render it not surprising when we find that for several 

 years no further direct efforts were made to fully solve the mystery 

 which involved Leichhardt's fate ; the more so, since in 1 855 and 

 1856 the expedition sent for geographical discoveries by the Home 

 Government through tropical Australia was in the field ; for it was 

 thought that fortunate events might bring its movements in contact 

 with the traces of the last explorers. No further tidings, however, 

 having been obtained, the Government of New South Wales, in 

 1858, entrusted the command of a special search expedition to Mr. 

 A. C. Gregory, with a hope that the well-known skill and experience 

 of that tried explorer would dispel the mystery. But, although 

 this expedition solved some most interesting problems in the 

 geography of Australia, it left that of Leichhardt's fate unsolved ; 

 still, Mr. Gregory discovered, not distant from the junction of the 

 Alice River with Cooper's Creek, a marked tree indicating a Leich- 

 hardtian camp, in lat. 24deg/35min. S., and long. 146 deg. 6min. 



* Vide letter to Dr. Mueller, dated 3rd October, 1864. 

 t Leichhardt left Mount Abundance early in April, 1848. 



