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Page 56
For several weeks these brave fellows fought off their terrible fate,
sometimes hoping, oftener despairing, and at last, one after another,
they lay down far apart in the dreary solitude of the wilderness, to
die of starvation.
All this and more was learned by Captain Howitt, who commanded an
expedition of search sent out from Melbourne, some nine months after
the departure of Burke and his company, not a word of news having been
received concerning them, and many fears being felt for the safety of
the little band. On Howitt's arrival at Cooper's Creek he, too, found
the word "dig," where the four despairing men had seen it; and beneath
the tree was buried, not only the paper left by Brahe, but Burke's
journal, giving the details of the journey to the coast, discoveries
made, and the terrible last scenes.
At every step of Burke's pathway new objects of interest had elicited
his surprise and admiration. Not only were there fertile plains and
beautiful, flower-dotted prairies, but lagoons of salt water, hills of
red sand, and vast mounds that seemed to tell of a time when the region
was thickly populated, though now it was all but untrod by man. A range
of lofty mountains, discovered by Burke in the north, he called the
Standish Mountains, and a lovely valley outspread at their foot he
named the Land of Promise.
But alas! Great portions of Burke's journey had to be made through
rugged and barren regions, destitute of water, and with nothing that
could serve as food for man or beast. Driven to extremities by hunger,
the pioneers devoured the venomous reptiles they killed, and on one
occasion Burke came near dying from the poison of a snake he had eaten.
All their horses were killed for food, and all their camels but two.
Perhaps these also went at a later day, for toward the last the records
in the journal became short, and were written at long intervals.
Once the party was obliged to halt with poor Gray, and wait till he had
breathed his last, when the three mourning survivors went on in silence
without their comrade.
A letter from young Wills, addressed to his father, is dated June 29th.
The words are few, but they are full of meaning.
"My death here, within a few hours, is certain, but my soul is calm,"
he wrote.
The next day he died, as was supposed by the last record; though the
precise time could not be known, as he had gone forth alone to make one
more search for relief, and had met his solitary fate calmly, as a hero
should. Howitt, after long search, found the remains of his friend
stretched on the sand, and nearly covered with leaves.
The closing sentence in Burke's journal is dated one day earlier than
young Wills's letter. It runs:
"We have gained the shores of the ocean, but we have been aband--"
It is not, of course, known why the last word was never finished. It
may have been that he felt too keenly the cruelty of his companions'
desertion of him to bring himself to write the word; or perhaps the
death agony overtook him before he could finish it. At any rate, it
speaks a whole crushing world of reproach to those whose disregard of
duty cost their noble leader's life. It has its lessons for us all.
Burke's skeleton also was found, covered with leaves and boughs that
had been placed there, it is supposed, by the pitying natives, who
found the dead hero where, in bitter loneliness, he heaved his dying
sigh, unflinching to the last.
Howitt wrapped the remains in the flag of his country, and left them in
their resting-place. Then he returned to Melbourne, and made
preparations for their removal and subsequent burial. They rest now in
that beautiful city near the sea, beneath the great bronze monument.
There are two figures, rather larger than life, Burke standing, Wills
in a sitting posture. On the pedestal are three bass-reliefs, one
showing the return to Cooper's Creek, another the death of Burke, and
the third the finding of his remains. This is a fitting tribute to the
memory of the brave explorers, but a far nobler and more enduring
memorial exists in the rapid growth and present prosperous condition of
that vast island, results that are largely the fruit of their labors
and devotion.
King survived, but he was wasted almost to a skeleton, and it was
months before he could tell the story of suffering he alone knew.
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