and dry, without a rivulet or an oasis. They suffered for water and food
grew scarce, but, sure of relief at Cooper's Creek, they pushed bravely
on, and reached the rendezvous to learn that the men who could have
saved them had passed on but seven hours before! After having
accomplished so much, so bravely battled with heat and hunger, serpents
and cannibals, to perish at last of starvation, seemed a fate too
terrible; and we cannot wonder that the little band fought their destiny
to the last. Little scraps of the journal of Burke and his friends tell
the sad tale of the last few weeks of agony. On March 6th, Burke seemed
near dying from having eaten a bit of a large serpent that he had
cooked. On the 30th they killed one of their camels, and on April 10th
they killed "Billy," Burke's favorite riding-horse. On the 11th they
were forced to halt on account of the condition of Grey, who was no
longer able to proceed. On the 21st they reached an oasis--a little
squad of human skeletons, scarcely more than alive.


[Illustration: COURSE OF THE TAMAR, VAN DIEMEN'S LAND.]

Far and wide their longing eyes gazed in search of succor: they called
aloud with all their little remaining strength, but the oasis was
deserted, and the echo of their own sad voices was all the reply that
reached the despairing men. Then, at their rendezvous, finding the word
"Dig" on the tree where Howitt found it at a later day, they opened the
soil, and so learned the departure of Brahe on that very morning. How
terribly tantalizing, after their exhausting march and still more
exhausting return, after having killed and eaten all their camels but
two, and all their horses, after making discoveries that unlocked to the
world the vast interior of this hitherto unknown continent, to find that
they were just too late to be saved! Despair and death seemed staring