piece of rising ground, even without any load, induces an indescribable sensation of pain and helplessness, and the general lassitude makes one unfit for anything.  Poor Gray must have suffered very much many times when we thought him shamming.  It is most fortunate for us that these symptoms, which so early affected him, did not come on us until we were reduced to an exclusively animal diet of such an inferior description as that offered by the flesh of a worn-out and exhausted horse.  We were not long in getting out the grub that Brahe had left, and we made a good supper off some oatmeal porridge and sugar.  This, together with the excitement of finding ourselves in such a peculiar and most unexpected position, had a wonderful effect in removing the stiffness from our legs.  Whether it is possible that the vegetables can have so affected us, I know not; but both Mr. Burke and I remarked a most decided relief and a strength in the legs greater than we had had for several days.  I am inclined to think that but for the abundance of portulac that we obtained on the journey, we should scarcely have returned to Cooper’s Creek at all.

. . .

I asked King how my son behaved.  His answer was, that he never once showed the slightest anger or loss of self-command.  From under a tree on which had been marked, “Dig, 21st April, 1861,” a box was extracted containing the provisions, and a bottle with the following note:—­

Depot, Cooper’s Creek, April 21, 1861.

The depot party of the V.E.E. leaves this camp to-day to return to the Darling.  I intend to go south-east from Camp 60 to get into our old track near Bulloo.  Two of my companions and myself are quite well; the third, Patten, has been unable to walk for the last eighteen days, as his leg has been severely hurt when thrown by one of the horses.  No one has been up here from the Darling.  We have six camels and twelve horses in good working condition.

William brahe.

. . .

Brahe has been blamed for not having left a true statement of his condition, and that of those with him; but it was truth when he wrote it.  He believed Patten’s to have been a sprain.  It was afterwards that he contradicted himself, in his journal written in Melbourne, and in his evidence before the Royal Commission.  Brahe had no journal when he came down the first time with a message from Wright, and was requested, or ordered, by the committee to produce one, which he subsequently did.  In this journal, Brahe enters, on the 15th April: 

Patten is getting worse.  I and McDonough begin to feel alarming symptoms of the same disease (namely, a sprain).

April 18.—­There is no probability of Mr. Burke returning this way.  Patten is in a deplorable state, and desirous of returning to the Darling to obtain medical assistance; and our provisions will soon be reduced to a quantity insufficient to take us back to the Darling if the trip should turn out difficult and tedious.  Being also sure that I and McDonough would not much longer escape scurvy, I, after most seriously considering all circumstances, made up my mind to start for the Darling on Sunday next, the 21st.