Encouraged by these encomiums on his success, and perhaps a little intoxicated by the general acclamation, Leichhardt now conceived the ambitious idea of traversing the continent from the eastern to the western shore; keeping as far as possible on the same parallel of latitude.  This was a bold project, coming as it did so soon after Sturt had returned to Adelaide from his excursion into the interior with a terrible tale of thirst and suffering.  But this time the hero of the hour experienced no difficulty in obtaining funds and other necessary aids.  The party, when organised, travelled from the Hunter River to the Condamine, taking with them their outfit of mules, cattle, and goats.  When the expedition departed from Darling Downs, they numbered seven white men and two natives, with 270 goats, 180 sheep, 40 bullocks, 15 horses, and 13 mules.  There were besides an ample outfit and provisions calculated to last the explorers on a two years’ journey; for it was estimated that the expedition would be absent from civilisation for that time.

Instead of setting out westwards from the initial point in a direction where Leichhardt could reasonably expect fair travelling country for some distance, he proceeded along his old track north to the Mackenzie and Isaacs Rivers.  What induced him to adopt this course is uncertain.  He explained to one of his party that it was to verify some former observations; or he may have had some dim notion that by keeping to the tropical line he would gain some climatic assistance.  Whatever the cause, the result was disastrous.  The wet season and monsoonal rains caught the party amongst the sickly acacia scrubs of that region; and hemmed in by mud and bog they lost their stock, consumed their provisions, and made no progress.  Henceforth the narrative is one of semi-starvation, varied by gorging on the days when a beast was killed; and wrangles and quarrels, in which the leader appeared in no amiable light.  Medicine had been omitted from the stores, and all the covering they had from the torrential rains was provided by two miserable calico tents.  The 6th day of July found them back on Chauvel’s station on the Condamine; a sad contrast to the party which had aspired to cross the continent.

[Illustration.  John Frederick Mann.  Born 1819, died September 7th, 1907, at Sydney.  The last survivor of a Leichhardt expedition.]

The onus of this wretched failure Leichhardt tried to cast upon his companions, upon whom he made many unjust aspersions.  J.F.  Mann, late of the Survey Department of New South Wales, was one of the expedition, and the last surviving member of any expedition connected with Leichhardt.  He wrote a booklet in which he vigorously defends his comrades and himself against the unworthy slurs cast at them by Leichhardt.  Amongst his papers is a rough sketch from life of Leichhardt in bush costume.