had a fine country to traverse; got on to the head of the Warrego, and
finally on to the Darling River in New South Wales. He came across no
traces whatever of Burke. Victoria sent a relief expedition under
Walker, with several Queensland black troopers. Walker, crossing the
lower Barcoo, found a tree of Leichhardt's marked L, being the most
westerly known. Walker arrived at Carpentaria without seeing any
traces of the missing Burke and Wills; but at the mouth of the Albert
River met the master of the vessel that had conveyed Landsborough; the
master had seen or heard nothing of Burke. Another expedition fitted
out by Victoria, and called the Victorian Contingent Relief
Expedition, was placed under the command of Alfred Howitt in 1861. At
this time a friend of mine, named Conn, and I were out exploring for
pastoral runs, and were in retreat upon the Darling, when we met
Howitt going out. When farther north I repeatedly urged my companion
to visit the Cooper, from which we were then only eighty or ninety
miles away, in vain. I urged how we might succour some, if not all, of
the wanderers. Had we done so we should have found and rescued King,
and we might have been in time to save Burke and Wills also; but Conn
would not agree to go. It is true we were nearly starved as it was,
and might have been entirely starved had we gone there, but by good
fortune we met and shot a stray bullock that had wandered from the
Darling, and this happy chance saved our lives. I may here remark that
poor Conn and two other exploring comrades of those days, named
Curlewis and McCulloch, were all subsequently, not only killed but
partly eaten by the wild natives of Australia--Conn in a place near
Cooktown on the Queensland coast, and Curlewis and McCulloch on the
Paroo River in New South Wales in 1862. When we were together we had
many very narrow escapes from death, and I have had several similar
experiences since those days. Howitt on his arrival at Cooper's Creek
was informed by the natives that a white man was alive with them, and