On March 24, 1894, we started; Luck, myself, and three camels--Omerod,
Shimsha, and Jenny by name--with rations for three months, and
instructions to prospect the Hampton Plains as far as the supply of
surface water permitted; failing a long stay in that region I could go
where I thought best.

To the east and north-east of Coolgardie lie what are known as the Hampton
Plains--so named by Captain Hunt, who in 1864 led an expedition past York,
eastward, into the interior. Beyond the Hampton Plains he was forced back
by the Desert, and returned to York with but a sorry tale of the country
he had seen. "An endless sea of scrub," was his apt description of the
greater part of the country. Compared to the rest, the Hampton Plains were
splendid pastoral lands. Curiously enough, Hunt passed and repassed close
to what is now Coolgardie, and, though reporting quartz and ironstone,
failed to hit upon any gold. Nor was he the only one; Coolgardie had
several narrow squeaks of being found out.

Giles and Forrest both traversed districts since found to be gold-bearing,
and though, like Hunt, reporting, and even bringing back specimens of
quartz and ironstone, had the bad luck to miss finding even a "colour."

Alexander Forrest, Goddard, and Lindsay all passed within appreciable
distance of Coolgardie without unearthing its treasures, though in
Lindsay's journal the geologist to the expedition pronounced the country
auriferous. When we come to consider how many prospectors pass over gold,
it is not so wonderful that explorers, whose business is to see as much
country as they can, in as short a time as possible, should have failed to
drop on the hidden wealth.