was achieved only at a cost which the little party could ill sustain.
Four of the best horses perished, which deprived Eyre of the means of
carrying provisions, and he had to decide between abandoning the
expedition altogether or still further reducing the number of his
companions. Mr. Scott and three men returned to Adelaide, leaving behind
a man named Baxter, who had long been in Eyre's employ as an overseer or
factotum; the two natives who had first started with him, and a boy,
Wylie, who had before been in Eyre's service, and who had been brought
back in the cutter.

Six months after Eyre had started from Adelaide, he was left with only
four companions to continue the journey. He had acquired considerable
experience of the privations to be encountered, but refused to comply
with the wishes of Colonel Gawler, the Governor, to abandon the
expedition as hopeless, and return to Adelaide. Indeed, with
characteristic inflexibility--almost approaching to obstinacy--he
resolved to attempt the western route along the shore of the Great
Bight--a journey which, only a few months before, he had himself
described as impracticable.

The cutter which had been stationed at Fowler Bay, to afford assistance
if required, departed on the 31st of January, 1841, and Eyre and his
small party were left to their fate. He had been defeated in the attempt
to push forward in a northward direction, and he resolved not to return
without having accomplished something which would justify the confidence
of the public in his energy and courageous spirit of adventure. If he
could not reach the north, he would attempt the western route, whatever
might be the result of his enterprise. After resting to recruit the
strength of his party, Eyre resolutely set out, on the 25th of February,
on what proved to be a journey attended by almost unexampled demands upon