His chagrin and surprise to find the party just
where he had left them, nearly dead, most of them delirious, with all
the horses gone, when he had expected to meet them so much nearer the
Paroo. In consequence of the state these men or animals were in, they
had to be carried on the camels, and it was impossible to go in search
of the horses; thus all was lost. This event crushed the expedition.
Mcintyre obtained a few more horses, pushed across to the Flinders
again, became attacked with fever, and died. Thus the "Ladies'
Leichhardt Search Expedition" entirely fell through. The camels were
subsequently claimed by McIntyre's brother for the cost of grazing
them, he having been carried by them to Carpentaria, where he selected
an excellent pastoral property, became rich, and died. It was the same
doctor that got into trouble with the Queensland Government concerning
the kidnapping of some islanders in the South Seas, and narrowly
escaped severe, if not capital punishment.
In 1866, Mr. Cowle conducted an expedition from Roebourne, near Nicol
Bay, on the West Coast, for four or five hundred miles to the Fitzroy
River, discovered by Wickham, at the bottom of King's Sound.
In 1869, a report having spread in Western Australia of the massacre
of some white people by the natives somewhere to the eastwards of
Champion Bay, on the west coast, the rumour was supposed to relate to
Leichhardt and his party; and upon the representations of Baron von
Mueller to the West Australian Government, a young surveyor named John
Forrest was despatched to investigate the truth of the story. This
expedition penetrated some distance to the eastwards, but could
discover no traces of the lost, or indeed anything appertaining to any
travellers whatever.
In 1869-70, John Forrest, accompanied by his brother Alexander, was
again equipped by the West Australian Government for an exploration
eastwards, with the object of endeavouring to reach the South
Australian settlements by a new route inland. Forrest, however,
followed Eyre's track of 1840-1, along the shores of the Great
Australian Bight, and may be said to have made no exploration at all,
as he did not on any occasion penetrate inland more than about thirty
miles from the coast. At an old encampment Forrest found the skull of
one of Eyre's horses, which had been lying there for thirty years.
This trophy he brought with him to Adelaide.
The following year, Alexander Forrest conducted an expedition to the
eastwards, from the West Australian settlements; but only succeeded in
pushing a few miles beyond Hunt and Lefroy's furthest point in 1864.
What I have written above is an outline of the history of discovery
and exploration in Australia when I first took the field in the year
1872; and though it may not perhaps be called, as Tennyson says, one
of the fairy tales of science, still it is certainly one of the long
results of time.
