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 up spirit on returning after the
others on the old track. It is true that Brahe's false statement of
the condition of his party held out no encouragement that they
might be able to overtake him; but there was a chance that a new
party might even then be coming up, or that the laggard Wright
would be on the advance at last, as proved to be the fact. A
Melbourne paper, commenting on these points, had the following
remarks, which were as just as they were doubly painful, being
delivered after the event:--

Wills and King it appears were desirous of following their track out
from Menindie, which would unquestionably have been the wiser
course; but Mr. Burke preferred striking for the South Australian
stations, some of which, he had been informed by the Royal
Committee of Exploration, were only one hundred and fifty miles
from Cooper's Creek. It was a most unfortunate and fatal matter for
Mr. Burke that these Royal people had anything whatever to do with
his movements.

He made two attempts to strike in the direction in which they had
assured him he would easily reach a settled district, and twice was
he driven back for want of water. It was a fatal mistake on his
part to follow the suggestion of these ready advisers. The
practical impressions of Wills or King were worth a world of
theoretical conjectures and philosophic presumption. But it seems
to have been decreed that Burke should have favoured the former
instead of the latter; the consequences of which were that himself
and poor Wills were to per