THE LAST MOMENTS OF THE EXPLORERS MESSRS. BURKE AND WILLS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1688, 26 November 1861, Page 5

THE LAST MOMENTS OF THE EXPLORERS MESSRS. BURKE AND WILLS.

From the narrative of Mr. King the only 'survivor of this successful but ill-fated expediI tion, we gain the following account of the deaths of his gallant fellow explorers. The three gen- | tlemen arrived at Cooper's Creek at half-past seven p.m , on the 21st of April, with two camels — all that remained of the six originally taken with them. After remaining there some days to recruit their strength, their gunyah caught fire, destroying everything they possessed excepting a gun and a revolver. Mr. King thus proceeds : — " It was decided to go up the creek and live with the natives, if possible, as Mr. Wills thought we should have but littie diffi cnlty in, obtaining provisions frem thera, if we camped on the opposite side of the creek to thera. He said he know where they were gone, so we packed up and started. Coming to the gunyahs, where we expected to have found thera, we were disappointed, and seeing a nardoo field close by, halted, intending to make it our camp. For some time we were employed ga thering nardoo, and laying up a supply. Mr. Wills and I used to collect aud carry home a bag each clay, and Mr. Burke generally pounded sufficient for our dinner during our absence, but Mr. Wills found himself getting very weak, /and was shortly unable to go out to gather nardoo as before, nor even strong enough to pound it, so that in a few days he became almost help less. I still continued gathering ; and Mr. Burke now also began to feel very weak, and said he could be of very little use in pounding. I had now to gather and pound for all three of us. I continued to do this for a few days, but finding my strength rapidly failing, my legs being very weak and painful, I was unable to go out for several days, and we were compelled to consume six days' stock which we had laid by. Mr. Burke now proposed that I should gather as much as possible iv three days, and that with this supply we should go in search of the natives, a plan which had been urged upon us by Mr. Wills as* the only chance of saving him and ourselves as well, as he clearly saw that 1 was no longer able to collect sufficient for our wants. Having collected tfieseed, as proposed, and having pounded sufficient to last Mr. Wills for eight days, and two days for ourselves, toe placed water and firewood within his reach, and started. Before leaving him, however, Mr. Burke asked him whether he still wished it, as uuder no other circumstances would he leave him: and Mr. Wills agaiu said that be looked on it as our only chance. He then gave Mr. Burke a letter and his watch for bis father, and we buried the remainder of the field books near the gunyah. Mr. Wills said tbat, in case of my surviving Mr. Burke, he hoped that I would carry out his last wishes, iv giving the watch and letter to his father. In travelling the first day, Mr. Burke seemed very weak, and complained of great pain in his legs and back. On the second day, he seemed to b-9 better, and said that he thought he was getting stronger, but, on starting, did not go < two miles before he said he could go no further. I persisted in his trying to go on, and managed to get hira along several times, nntil I saw that he was almost knocked up, when he said he could not carry his swag, and threw all he bad away. I also reduced mine, taking nothing! but a gun aud some powder and shot, and a small pouch and some matches. Ou starting' again, we did not go far before Mr. Burke said he would halt for the night; but, as the place was close to a large sheet of water, and exposed to the wind, I prevailed on him to go a little ! further to the next reach of water, where we camped. We searched about and found a few smaU patches of nardoo, which I collected aucj pounded, and, with a crow which I shot, made a good evenings' meal. From the time we halted Mr. Burke seemed to he getliug worse, although he ate his supper. He said he felt convinced he could not last many hours, andgave me his watch, which he said belonged to the committee, and a pocketbook, to give to Sir William Stawell, and in which he wrote some notes. He then said to me, " I hope you will remain with me here till I am quite dead—it is a comfort to know that some one is by ; but when I am dying it is my wish that you should place the pistol in my right hand, and that you leave me unhuried as I lie." That night he spoke very little, and the following morning I found him speechless, or nearly so; and about eight o'clock he expired. I remained a few hours there, but as I saw there was no use in remaining longer, I went up the creek in search of the natives. felt very lonely, and nt night usually slept in deserted wurleys belonging to tbe natives. Two days after leaving the spot where Mr. Burke died, I found some gunyahs, where the natives had deposited a bag of nardoo, sufficient to last me a fortnight, and three bundles containing various articles. I also shot a crow that evening, but was in great dread that the natives would come und deprive me of the nardoo. I remained there two days to recover my strength, aud then returned to Mr. Wills. I took back three crows, hut found him lying dead in his gunyah, and the natives had been tbere and had taken away some of 1/is clothes. . I buried the corpse with sand aud remained there some days ; but finding that my stock of nardoo I was getting short, and being unable to gather it, I tracked> the natives who had been to the camp' by their footprints in the sand, and weut some distance down the creek, shooting crows and hawks on the road. . The natives, hearing the report of the gun, came to' meet me, and took me, with them to their camp, giving me nardoo and fish. [Mr. King was treated with uuiform kindness by the blacks until the arrival of the' relief party on the 15th September.]

Mr. Howitt, the leader of the relief]

party, has published his diary from which we are glad to learn thatthe Natives, who on several occasions supplied food to Messrs. Burke, Wills, and King, and who allowed the latter to live with them after the two former had died, have received numerous presents. When King was found at the Native camp, he was living in a house they had made for him and presented a melancholy appearance — wasted to a shadow and hardly to be recognised as a civilized being but by the remnants of clothes upon him He was so exceedingly weak that il wns difficult f for him to speak much at a time. After/ searching for the dead and burying their ( bones — those of Mr. Burke wrapped aI 1 Union Jack (the most fitting covering, says Mr. Howitt, in which the bones of a brave but unfortunate man could take tbeir last rest,) the Natives were followed up having gone away as soon as the relief party bad taken King in charge. Having shown them a tomahawk, a looking glass &c, and invited th_ra to come to the camp next morning the foHowing amusing scene took place. .We extract it from Mr. Howitt' s diary. September 24.— This morning, about ten o'clock, our black friends appeared in a long procession, men, women and cbiidren, or, as they here also call thera, piccaninnies ; and at a mile distance they commenced bawling at the top of their voices as usual. When collected altogether on a little flat, just below our camp, they must ,have numbered between thirty and forty, and 'the uproar was deafening. With the aid of King, I at last got them all seated before me, and distributed the presents — tomahawks, knives neck, laces, looking=glass. combs — among them. I think no people were ever so happy before, and it was very interesting to see how they pointed out one or another who they thought might be < overlooked. The picaninnies were brought forward by their parents, to have red ribbon tied round their dirty little heads. One old woman Carrawaw, who had been particularly kind to King, was loaded with things.. I then divided 40 lbs. of sugar between them, each one taking his share in a Union Jack pocket handkerchief, which they were very proud of. The sugar soon found its way- into their mouths ; the flour 50 ft of which I gave- thera, they at once called V white fellow nardoo," and- they explained that they understood that these things were given to them for having fed King. Some old clothes were then put on some of the men ; and women, and the alfair ended in several of our party and several of the black fellows having an impromptu corroboree," to the intense delight '. of tlie natives, and, I must say, very much to ' our own amusement. They left, making signs '. expressive of friendship, carrying their presents '. with them. The men all wore a net girdle, and and of the women, some wore one of leaves, others of feathers. I feel confident that we ' have left the best impression behind us, and that the white-fellows, as they have already learned to call us, will be looked on hencefoi th as friends, and that, in cases of emergency, any one will receive the kindest treatment at their handa.