as nothing official had reached the Committee.  At this moment, Dr. Macadam, the Honorary Secretary, came in.  He was perfectly bewildered, believed nothing, and had received no telegram.  “But,” said I, “when were you at your own house last?” “At seven o’clock,” was the reply.  “Good God!” I exclaimed, “jump into the car.”  We proceeded to his house, and there indeed was the telegram, which had been waiting for him some hours.

The next morning, Sunday, November the 3rd, Brahe arrived at an early hour at the Spencer-street Station, having been sent in by Mr. Howitt with the journals and letters dug up in the cache at Cooper’s Creek.  I was anxiously waiting his arrival.  Dr. Macadam was also there, and appeared confused, as if he had been up all night.  He insisted on dragging me on to the Governor’s house, four miles from Melbourne, Heaven only knows with what object.  With some difficulty I obtained from him possession of the bundle of papers, and deposited them for safety in the hands of Dr. Wilkie.  I have nothing more to say of Dr. Macadam, except that I sincerely trust it may never be my fortune to come in contact with him again, in any official business whatever.  He is a man of unbounded confidence in his own powers, ready to undertake many things at the same time; and would not, I suspect, shrink from including the honorary governorship of the colony, if the wisdom of superior authority were to place it at his disposal.

CHAPTER 12.

The attempt to reach South Australia and Adelaide by Mount Hopeless.  Mistake of selecting that Route.  Mr. Wills’s Journals from the 23rd of April to the 29th of June, 1861.  Adventures with the Natives.  Discovery of Nardoo as a Substitute for Food.  Mr. Burke and King go in search of Natives as a last resource.  Mr. Wills left alone in the Desert.  The Last Entry in his Journal.

On the morning of Thursday, the 23rd of April, 1861, Mr. Burke, my son, and King, being refreshed and strengthened by the provisions they found at Cooper’s Creek, again resumed their journey homewards.  It was an unfortunate resolve of Burke’s, to select the route to the Adelaide district by Mount Hopeless, instead of returning by the Darling.  King says, “Mr. Wills and I were of opinion that to follow Brahe was the best mode of proceeding; but Mr. Burke had heard it stated positively at the meeting of the Royal Society, that there were South Australian settlers within one hundred miles of Cooper’s Creek in the direction he proposed to take;” and by this very questionable assertion, without evidence, his mind was biassed.  There was, in fact, nothing to recommend the route by Mount Hopeless, while everything was in favour of that by the Darling.  Blanche Water, the nearest police-station on the Adelaide line, was distant between four and five hundred miles.  The one road they knew nothing of, the other was familiar to them.  The camels, too, would have plucked