tter of instructions is given to you and the
particular matters to which you will direct your attention in this
locality.

. . .

I had been in Adelaide nearly a month when I was startled by
the following note, from Major Egerton Warburton:--

September 19th.

MY DEAR SIR,

Would you kindly call in at my office? I have important news
which must interest you.

Yours very truly,

J. EGERTON WARBURTON.

. . .

I hastened to him, and asked, almost breathlessly, "What
news--good or bad?" He replied, "Not so bad;" and then gave me the
information which was made known in the House of Assembly that
night, and embodied in the Adelaide Advertiser, the next day, to
the following effect:--

On Thursday morning, considerable interest was excited in
Adelaide by a rumour to the effect that intelligence from the
interior had been received of Burke's party. We lost no time in
instituting inquiry, and found that the report was certainly not
unfounded. It was stated that a police trooper in the north had
sent down information, derived through a black, that at a long
distance beyond the settled districts some white men were living,
and that the black had obtained a portion of their hair. The white
men were described as being entirely naked, and as living upon a
raft on a lake, supporting themselves by catching fish: that they
had no firearms nor horses, but some great animals, which, from the
description given by the native, were evidently camels. There
could, therefore, be but little doubt as to this being Burke's
party, or a portion of it; and as soon as it was ascertained that
the rumour had some tangible kind of foundation, public curiosity
for fuller and more authentic details speedily rose very high. On
the assembling of Parliament, the Commissioner of Crown Lands,
desirous of allaying the anxiety of the public, read from his place
the letter brought by the native, of which the following is a copy:
--

Wirrilpa, September 12, 1861,

SIR,

I have the honour to forward the following particulars gathered
from the blacks, seeming to refer to Mr. Burke and party. A black
fellow called Sambo, who has lately come in from Lake Hope, brought
with him the hair of two white men, which he showed to the cook and
stockman at Tooncatchin. He says it was given to him by other
blacks, who told him that there were white men living much farther
out than where he had been. Frank James, one of Mr. Butler's
stockmen, saw Sambo aga