Burke & Wills Web
www.burkeandwills.net.au
: The online digital research archive of expedition records. -
© 2011

 

 

Depôt No2 Cooper Cr

Camp No LXV.

The returned party from Carpentaria consisting of Burke myself Wills and King (Grey dead) arrived here last night and found that the depôt party had only started on the same day.

We proceed on slowly down the creek towards Adelaide by Mt Hopeless and shall endeavour to follow...

2.

...Gregory's track but we are very weak. The two camels are done up and we shall not be able to travel faster than four or five miles a day.

Grey died on the road from exhaustion and fatigue.

We have all suffered much from hunger. The provisions left here will, I think, restore our strength

SLV MS13071, Image No: ms000052 SLV MS13071, Image No: ms000053

 

3.

We have discovered a practicable route to Carpentaria the chief portion of which lies on the 140th meridian of east longitude.

There is some good country between this and the stony desert. From there to the Tropic the country is dry and stony between the Tropic and Carpentaria...

4.

...a considerable portion is rangy but it is well watered and richly grassed. We reached the shores of Carpentaria on the 11th of Feby 1861.

greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone.

R O'Hara Burke
Leader

SLV MS13071, Image No: ms000054 SLV MS13071, Image No: ms000056

 

April 22nd 1861.

P.S.

The camels cannot travel and we cannot walk or we should follow the other party.

We shall move very slowly down the creek

SLV MS13071, Image No: ms000055  

Provenance: A note from the webmaster.
Burke wrote this note on three pages detached from a notebook on 22 April 1861 and buried it in the wooden camel-box cache at the Dig Tree. Alfred Howitt dug up and recovered the note on 28 September 1861 and returned it to Melbourne.

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Burke & Wills Web
www.burkeandwills.net.au
: The online digital research archive of expedition records. -
© 2012, Dave Phoenix