. . .

The South Australian Register, of the 26th of November, 1861, published at Adelaide, contained the following statement, which excited universal attention:—­

The Government have just received from Mr. McKinlay, leader of the expedition sent from this colony in search of Burke, a diary of his proceedings up to the 26th of October last.  This document contains a most singular narrative, being nothing less than an account of McKinlay’s discovery of what he believes to be the remains of Burke’s party, who he considers were some time since not only murdered, but partly eaten by the natives in the neighbourhood of Cooper’s Creek.  He, of course, had heard nothing of the result of Mr. Howitt’s expedition, or of Mr. King having been found alive by that expedition.  When, therefore, he came to a spot where there were graves containing the bones of white men, and where there were indications of a conflict having taken place with the natives, some of whom spoke of those white men having been killed and partly eaten, he came to the conclusion that he had ascertained all that was possible of Mr. Burke and his companions.  He accordingly buried a letter, containing a statement to this effect, at a place near where the remains were found, and then after forwarding to Adelaide the despatch which has now reached us, proceeded westward upon some other business intrusted to him by the Government.

It seems fated that every chapter of the unfortunate Burke exploration shall be marked with unusual interest.  The failures at the beginning of the enterprise, the tragedy of the explorers’ deaths, and the remarkable rescue of the survivor King, are now followed by a subject of interest altogether new and mysterious.  Certain as it is that McKinlay cannot have discovered the remains of Burke’s party, as he so firmly believed he had, it is equally clear that some other white men must have met their deaths at the spot reached by him, and that those deaths were, to all appearance, the result of foul play.  That the remains found by McKinlay cannot have been those of Burke and Wills, disinterred, removed, and mangled after death, may be inferred from a number of circumstances detailed by him in the extracts which we have given from his diary.  It will be seen that marks of violence were found on the remains, that there were indications of white men having camped in the neighbourhood (which was far distant from any camp of Burke’s), that one of the natives bore marks of having been engaged in a conflict where pistols were used, and that, lastly, the natives themselves said the bones were those of white men who had been murdered and eaten.  All this would probably appear conclusive to Mr. McKinlay that he had ascertained the fate of the explorers whom he had been in search of.  He was prepared for such a result, and there were many circumstances favourable to its probability.  He saw even, as he believed, positive indications of camels having been at the