On the 18th of June, Wright reached the Darling and sent in his dispatches. As may be imagined they occasioned great consternation, and no time was lost in instituting search parties to scour half the continent for the missing men. Fortunately a light party, under Mr. A. W. Howitt, had already been equipped, to follow on Burke's tracks, for the long absence and silence of Wright had already caused people to feel anxious. Howitt's party was doubled and he made all speed to Cooper's Creek. Meantime the other colonies took the matter up and three more parties were in the field. Howitt, whose fortunes we must follow, started early in July; the VICTORIA, steam sloop, was sent up to the mouth of the Albert River, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, from Brisbane, having Mr. W. Landsborough on board. Another Queensland expedition, under Mr. Walker, left the furthest out station, in the Rockhampton district, to proceed overland to the Gulf, and from South Australia, started M'Kinlay.
On the 8th of September Howitt, having with him Brahe, reached Cooper's Creek, and on the 13th arrived at the fatal depôt, but like all the others, he says that he could not see any sign of the caché having been touched; nor did he stop to examine it. On the 15th, while trying to follow Burke's outward track down the creek, Howitt says:—
"I crossed at a neck of sand, and again came on the track of a camel going up the creek; at the same time I found a native, who began to gesticulate in a very excited manner, and to point down the creek, bawling out, 'Gow! gow!' as loud as he could. When I went towards him he ran away, and finding it impossible to get him to come to me, I turned back to follow the camel track, and to look after my party, as I had not seen anything of them for some miles. The track was visible in sandy places, and was evidently the same I had seen for the last two days. I also found horse tracks in places, but very old. Crossing the creek I cut our track, and rode after the party. In doing so I came upon three pounds of tobacco, which had lain where I saw it for some time. This, together with the knife-handle, the fresh horse tracks, and the camel track going eastward, puzzled me extremely, and led me into a hundred conjectures. At the lower end of the large reach of water before mentioned, I met Sandy and Frank looking for me, with the intelligence that King, the only survivor of Mr. Burke's party, had been found. [See Appendix.] A little further on I found the party halted, and immediately went across to the black's wurleys, where I found King sitting in a hut that the blacks had made for him. He presented a melancholy appearance-wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be distinguished as a civilised being, except by the remnants of clothes on him."
So soon as King had recovered sufficient strength to accompany the party they went to the place where Wills had died, and found his body in the gunyah as King had described it, there it was buried. On the 21st, Burke's body was found up the creek, he too was buried where he died.
Howitt then, after rewarding the blacks who had cared for King, started home again by easy stages taking the rescued man with him. On his return to Melbourne, Howitt was sent back to disinter the remains of the explorers, and bring them down to Melbourne, which task he safely accomplished. A public funeral then took place, and subsequently a statue was erected to their memory.
Dr. Beckler, and Messrs. Stone, Purcell, and Patton were the others whose lives were sacrificed on this unfortunate trip, the first three were members of Wright's party, the last one was with Brahe at the depôt.
Before ending the narration of this journey of Burke and Wills, it will be remembered, that an account of Stuart's expedition to Central Mount Stuart, and Attack Creek was forwarded to the leader; these papers were entrusted to Trooper Lyons to take from Swan Hill to Wright's camp. Wright ordered him on to follow the tracks of Burke, who he supposed was about two hundred miles away; he was accompanied by the saddler of the party, McPherson, and a black boy, Dick. They followed Burke's tracks for some days but never reached him, their horses gave in, and they being insufficiently provided with provisions nearly perished, finally they were picked up by a relief party under Doctor Beckler.
The nardoo which served to prolong the life of Burke and Wills for a considerable time is a small ground plant resembling clover in the shape of its leaves. These leaves are covered with silvery down, and the seeds, too, have this down on them. When fresh the seeds are flat and oval. The nardoo grows in loose soil, subject to inundation, generally on polygonum flats.
Whilst this tragedy had been enacted, Stuart was endeavouring to force his way across Australia, and at the time his fellow explorers were slowly starving to death on Cooper's Creek, he was making gallant efforts to cross the dry tableland that separated him from the heads of the coast rivers.
Stuart followed his old track by the way of the Fincke and the Hugh, and on the 12th April arrived at their former acquaintance, the Bonney, which they found running strong, with abundant green feed on its banks. They followed it down until it spread out and was lost in a large plain; so striking north, the party on the 21st April reached Tennant's Creek, and four days after, they came to the scene of their skirmish with the natives, on Attack Creek. This time, although the tracks of natives were numerous, they were permitted to pass peacefully onwards. Still pushing to the north, along the base of the line of broken range, that in that locality runs north and south, Stuart found and named many creeks, all of them heading from the range and forming for a considerable space good defined channels, but becoming lost on entering the low country. At last, on the 4th of May, he came to the end of the range, which he there called the Ashburton Range. Here he made several attempts to the north-west, but could discover neither water nor watercourses in that direction; nothing but flooded plains, beautifully grassed, but heavy and rotten to ride over; beyond this, the country changed for the worse, becoming sandy and scrubby.