which you knew you owed your leader. (Applause.) In such a trying position as that in which you were placed, with the bands of discipline relaxed, the instincts of self-preservation have often led men to act selfishly.  Others in your position might have thought that, being stronger than the rest of the party—­able perhaps to pursue game, catch fish, or to pound nardoo—­it would have been consistent with duty to escape to the nearest settlement, perhaps with the vague idea of sending back assistance to your comrades.  I feel satisfied that any thought of deserting never crossed your mind—­that you abandoned all desire to serve yourself alone, and that they were determined to share the fate of your companions.  The result has proved that you acted rightly and properly.  Your example may serve to teach us that the path of duty, generally, under Providence, is the path of safety.  And what is about to take place tonight will also teach us another lesson: 

That duty never did yet want its meed.

...

(Applause.) I may just refer to the fortunate circumstance that our meeting should be graced by the presence of a gentleman who, partly from motives of humanity, and partly with a view to share in the glory of the enterprise, volunteered to lead one of the subsidiary expeditions sent in search of the missing expedition of which you formed a member.  Those subsidiary expeditions, it is well known, have led to a great increase of our geographical knowledge of the interior of the continent; and I believe, among the most brilliant exploits which grace the history of Australian exploration, there is not one more brilliant to be found than the passage made by the party under our friend Mr. Landsborough from the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Darling River. (Applause.) I hope Mr. Landsborough will be kind enough tonight to give us some information as to his route on the occasion.  We all know, without waiting for that explanation, that his journey has conferred a most substantial benefit on all these colonies.  It has, there can be no doubt, very much accelerated the formation of a great settlement in North Australia, which may be expected to become, some day, a separate and independent colony.  In fact it has formed a fitting addition to the noble efforts which have been made by this colony in the cause of Australian exploration.  Those efforts, as we all know, are now about to terminate.  Instructions have been despatched to Mr. Howitt to return as speedily as possible; and when he brings back the remains of the lamented explorers, Burke and Wills, we shall approach the closing scene of the great drama—­or tragedy, as I believe I may call it.  I trust on that occasion the public funeral promised to those brave men will be carried out with the enthusiasm which was manifested a year ago, and that active exertions will be used by all concerned to raise an appropriate monument to their memory. (Hear, hear.) I have now great pleasure in handing to King, on the part of the Royal Geographical Society of London, this watch, which bears within, as he will find, an inscription setting forth that it was “Presented by the President and Council of the Royal Geographical Society of London to John King, for his meritorious conduct in the expedition under the lamented Burke and Wills.” (Great applause.)