Appendix. lxix 



missing travellers, we are earnestly and ever anew reminded that we 

 have not fulfilled the dictates of humanity and of gratitude to one 

 of the early pioneers of Australian discovery, whose name will ever 

 be identified with the history of this country. 



The spot where, in his philanthropic endeavour to expand our 

 knowledge and to widen the area peacefully conquered for civilisa- 

 tion, Leichhardt is said to have sunk, is almost now within the reach 

 of settlement ; and what to those who formerly went on his path 

 proved unattainable, is a task now portrayed readily to be accom- 

 plished. We would therefore recommend that the localities on Cooper's 

 Creek which bear the last indisputable marks of Leichhardt's move- 

 ments should again be examined, and that a party sufficiently strong 

 to resist any attempted attacks should scrupulously, through reliable 

 interpreters, interrogate the natives, to set the question finally at 

 rest, whether Leichhardt and his brave little band met their death 

 on the spot originally recorded, and if this should be affirmed, to 

 secure such relics of the perished travellers as will place the fact of 

 their annihilation beyond doubt. The forbearing and judicious 

 manner in which Mr. Hovendon Rely acted towards the natives 

 must have inspired them with confidence that his followers will deal 

 with them in the same clement spirit ; and whilst now more than 

 sixteen years have elapsed since the probable destruction of Leich- 

 hardt's party, it is likely that the perpetrators of the murderous 

 deed will now display no greater reluctance to reveal the features of 

 the sad tragedy than the natives of the Bogan, when questioned, to 

 narrate the circumstances under which Richard Cunningham lost 

 his life. 



If this recommended inquiry verifies our just fears, one duty alone 

 remains to be performed — to mark by a monument the spot which 

 must be holy to all of us and all future generations, and which 

 would ever remain a historic landmark. If, however, and let us 

 cherish the hope, the destruction of the poor explorers on that spot 

 can be disproved, we ought not to rest until, by successive and 

 systematic inquiry amongst the native tribes, we learn what became 

 of the, lost men, should it involve a sacrifice ever so great ; for 

 whenever Leichhardt's fall beyond the Maranoa should be disproved, 

 the assumption that he and his faithful followers number with the 

 dead could likewise no longer be vindicated on any tangible ground, 

 and we could no longer dispute the possibility of any of the un- 

 happy men still having lingered on from one tedious year to the 

 other for relief, and to have lingered in vain. The improbability of 

 such a fact is great indeed, but its absolute impossibility, from 

 evidence hitherto extant, cannot be demonstrated, and future ages 

 will then pass on Leichhardt's Australian contemporaries their judg- 

 ment. Those on whom the burden of exploration has fallen heaviest 

 amongst us have earned almost throughout but poor rewards 

 for their self-sacrificing labours. But let it not be said of us, in 



