On reaching the Condamine, Leichhardt was put into possession of the news of Mitchell’s return and of the discovery of the Barcoo.  Being anxious to examine the country lying between the upper Condamine and Mitchell’s latest track, he, in company with two or three of his late companions, left Cecil Plains for that purpose; he went as far as the Balonne River, crossed it and returned.  This doubtless was in view of organising another expedition, with which he evidently intended to start in another manner, straight to the westward.

Still persisting and believing in his capability of leading an expedition across the continent, and fearful that this ambitious project might be forestalled, he now made strong and strenuous efforts to organise another party.  He succeeded at length, but the party was neither so well provided, nor so large, nor composed of such capable men as the second.

In fact, very little is known of the members that composed it; the only thing certain is that it was not at all adapted for the work that lay before it.  A few words of the Reverend W.W.B.  Clarke, the well-known geologist, have been many times quoted, and they convey about all that is known of the personnel of the expedition:—­

“The parties that accompanied Leichhardt were perhaps little capable of shifting for themselves in case of any accident to their leader.  The second in command, a brother-in-law of Leichhardt, came from Germany to join him before starting, and he told me, when I asked him what his qualifications for the journey were, that he had been at sea and had suffered shipwrecks, and was therefore well able to endure hardship.  I do not know what his other qualifications were.”

The last sentence is very pregnant, and implies that a very poor opinion of the men as experienced bushmen was entertained by those who saw them.

The lost expedition is supposed to have consisted of six whites and two blacks; the names known being those of the doctor himself, Classen, Hentig, Stuart, and Kelly.  He had with him 12 horses, 13 mules, 50 bullocks, and 270 goats; beside the utterly inadequate allowance of 800 pounds of flour, 120 pounds of tea, some sugar and salt, 250 pounds of shot, and 40 pounds of powder.  His last letter is dated the 3rd of April, 1848, from McPherson’s station on the Cogoon, but in it he speaks only of the country he has passed through, and nothing of his intended route.  Since the residents of this then outlying station lost sight of him, no sure clue as to the fate of him and his companions has ever come to light.  The total evanishment, not alone of the men, but of the animals —­ especially the mules and the goats —­ is one of the strangest mysteries of our mysterious interior.  Thirst probably caused the death of the animals, and in that case they would have died singly and apart, and their remains would in after years elude attention.  A similar fate probably befel the men.