President's A ddress. 
II 
man seeing tlio 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 equipped 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 bo, and to convey horses and stores for a land party, 
under Mr. Landsborough, to form a depot on the Albert 
River, 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 
Cooper’s Creek, and maintain it as long as any of the relief 
parties were in the field and might want aid. 
All these parties aided greatly in the unexampled advance 
made in knowledge of Australian geography, and the 
energy and liberality of the Victorian Government cannot 
fail to redound greatly to the credit of the colony at home, 
when it is known that Victoria’s share of the expenses of 
the explorations was (£35,000) thirty-five thousand pounds, 
while the only other contributor, Queensland, gave but 
(£500) five hundred pounds, and that to be spent within 
her own boundaries. 
To Mr. Howitt’s party, as you all know, it was alone 
permitted to give any succour to the missing explorers, and 
he found on his return to Cooper’s Creek that the only 
