One of them, Smith, a lad of eighteen who had accompanied the expedition as a volunteer, had died two days before the rescue; his body was recovered and buried in the wilderness.  Walker, the surgeon and second in charge, was still absent; but he had voluntarily left the main body and had pushed on for assistance towards Fremantle, which he safely reached.

During these unfortunate expeditions, Grey had shown a generous spirit of self-sacrifice combined with high courage and a fine enthusiasm for geographical discovery.  But his lack of experience and his ignorance of the local seasonal conditions counterbalanced these, and explained his failures.  Afterwards he became Acting Government Resident at Albany, on King George’s Sound, and he was at a critical period Governor of South Australia.  But Australia proper saw little of him in his after prime, and his fame was built up elsewhere, in New Zealand and at the Cape of Good Hope.

Grey’s reports left doubt as to the precise value of the country he traversed under such trying circumstances, but he is justly credited with the discovery of many rivers on the west coast —­ the Grey, the Buller, the Chapman, the Greenough, the Arrowsmith, the Hutt, the Bowyer, and those important streams, the Murchison and the Gascoyne.

17.3.  AUGUSTUS C. GREGORY.

[Illustration.  Augustus C. Gregory, 1880.  Photo, Freeman, Sydney.]

In 1846 we come upon a name destined to become linked with the history of exploration in most parts of Australia.  There were three notable brothers of the name of Gregory; but as their expeditions, at least those of Augustus and Frank, were conducted independently, with the exception of the first, we shall deal with them separately.  H.C.  Gregory, it is true, associated his work mostly with that of his brother, A.C.  Gregory, generally in a subordinate position, but Frank Gregory won nearly equal fame with his brother Augustus as an independent explorer.

A.C.  Gregory was the son of Lieutenant J. Gregory of the 78th Highlanders.  He was born at Farnsfield, Nottinghamshire, in 1819, and came to Western Australia with his parents in 1829 in the Lotus, 500 tons, Captain Summerson, the second passenger ship that sailed for Western Australia.  Lieutenant Gregory had five sons in all:  William, Augustus, Francis, Henry, and James.  The Lotus reached Fremantle about the 10th of October, 1829.  Captain Gregory had been obliged to retire from active service, being incapacitated by serious wounds received at El Hamed, in Egypt, and held a large grant of land from the Imperial Government in lieu of pension.  On this grant, situated not far from Perth, he established a farm, and on that farm Augustus and his brothers received the balance of their education and underwent their course of bush training.  Augustus, after his last expedition, was appointed in 1859 Surveyor-General of Queensland, in which colony he settled down later, after retiring from active official life.  He had a seat in the Legislative Council, and was a prominent freemason.  He was created C.M.G. in 1874, and K.C.M.G. in 1903, and had several honours conferred upon him by the Royal Geographical Society.  He died in Brisbane, in 1905.