and all their camels but two.
Perhaps these also went at a later day, for toward the last the records
in the journal became short, and were written at long intervals.

Once the party was obliged to halt with poor Gray, and wait till he had
breathed his last, when the three mourning survivors went on in silence
without their comrade.

A letter from young Wills, addressed to his father, is dated June 29th.
The words are few, but they are full of meaning.

"My death here, within a few hours, is certain, but my soul is calm,"
he wrote.

The next day he died, as was supposed by the last record; though the
precise time could not be known, as he had gone forth alone to make one
more search for relief, and had met his solitary fate calmly, as a hero
should. Howitt, after long search, found the remains of his friend
stretched on the sand, and nearly covered with leaves.

The closing sentence in Burke's journal is dated one day earlier than
young Wills's letter. It runs:

"We have gained the shores of the ocean, but we have been aband--"

It is not, of course, known why the last word was never finished. It
may have been that he felt too keenly the cruelty of his companions'
desertion of him to bring himself to write the word; or perhaps the
death agony overtook him before he could finish it. At any rate, it
speaks a whole crushing world of reproach to those whose disregard of
duty cost their noble leader's life. It has its lessons for us all.

Burke's skeleton also was found, covered with leaves and boughs that
had been placed there, it is supposed, by the pitying natives, who
found the dead hero where, in bitter loneliness, he heaved his dying
sigh, unflinching to the last.

Howitt wrapped the remains in the flag of his country, and left them in
their resting-place. Then he returned to Melbourne, and made
preparations for their removal and subsequent burial. They rest now in
that beautiful city near the sea, beneath the great bronze monument.
There are two figures, rather larger than life, Burke standing, Wills
in a sitting posture. On the pedestal are three bass-reliefs, one
showing the return to Cooper's Creek, another the death of Burke, and
the third the finding of his remains. This is a fitting tribute to the
memory of the brave explorers, but a far nobler and more enduring
memorial exists in the rapid growth and present prosperous condition of
that vast island, results that are largely the fruit of their labors