LETTER OF "WILLS THE EXPLORER.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 4401, 24 July 1883, Page 2

LETTER OF "WILLS THE EXPLORER.

A correspondent of the Hobart Her* cury sends the following particulars of the strange discovery of a letter from a well-known Australian explorer:-— '• Some time before I left London (two and a half years ago) I attended a sale of the effects of a gentleman who had long resided in the Colonies, and been largely interested both in mining and agricultural matters. I visited this sale to buy some pictures I knew he had, and while bidding for two which hung against the wall, the auctioneer, an illiterate man, said, "Here's a letter in a frame between these two picturea, which I'll throw in ; it seems to come from some cove who don't expect to live long, and who writes in a dismal tone.' I bought these two pictures, and consequently became the possessor of this lachrymose epistlo. On their reaching my place I took this letter from its frame, and read it with some difficulty, owing to its having faded much from age. What was my surprise to find that it was from the explorer, W. J. "Wills, dated from Cooper's Creek, June 17th, 1861, and addressed to his father. It was a long aud most interesting letter, giving an account of his movements, his sufferings and disappointrnents,and stating his conviction that he could only live four or five days longer, but saying that his spirits were excellent, and his religious views unchanged. It bore the stamp of a genuine document, and you can imagine I was very agreeably astonished tq b,ave so strangely obtained it."