wearily. An
hour or two afterwards he was stiff and unable to move. He asked King to
take his watch and pocket-book, and, if possible, to give them to his
friends in Melbourne; then he begged of him not to depart till he was
quite dead: he knew he should not live long, and he should like some one
to be near him to the last. He spoke with difficulty, but directed King
not to bury him, but to let him lie above the ground, with a pistol in
his right hand. They passed a weary and lonesome night; and in the
morning, at eight o'clock, Burke's restless life was ended. King
wandered for some time forlorn, but, by good fortune, he stumbled upon
an abandoned encampment, where, by neglect, the blacks had left a bag of
nardoo, sufficient to last him a fortnight; and, with this, he hastened
back to the hut where Wills had been laid. All he could do now, however,
was to dig a grave for his body in the sand, and, having performed that
last sad duty, he set out once more on his search, and found a tribe,
differing from that which he had already seen. They were very kind, but
not anxious to keep him, until, having shot some birds and cured their
chief of a malady, he was found to be of some use, and soon became a
great favourite with them. They made a trip to the body of Burke, but,
respecting his last wishes, they did not seek to bury it, and merely
covered it gently with a layer of leafy boughs.

#5. Relief Parties.#--When Wright and Brahe returned to Victoria with the
news that, though it was more than five months since Burke and Wills had
left Cooper's Creek, there were no signs of them at the depot, all the
colonies showed their solicitude by organising parties to go to the
relief of the explorers, if, perchance, they should be still alive.
Victoria was the first in the field, and the Royal Society equipped a
small party, under Mr. A. W. Howitt, to examine the banks of Cooper's
Creek. Queensland offered five hundred pounds to assist in the search,
and with this sum, an expedition was sent to examine the Gulf of
Carpentaria. Landsborough, its leader, was conveyed in the Victoria
steamer to the gulf, and followed the Albert almost to its source, in
hopes that Burke and Wills might be dwelling with the natives on that
stream. Walker was sent to cross from Rockhampton to the Gulf of
Carpentaria; he succeeded in reaching the Flinders River, where Burke
and Wills had been; but, of course, he saw nothing of them. M'Kinlay was
sent by S