bject, I
have one consolation in the retrospect of my past services. My path among
savage tribes has been a bloodless one, not but that I have often been
placed in situations of risk and danger, when I might have been justified
in shedding blood, but I trust I have ever made allowance for human
timidity, and respected the customs of the rudest people."

Sturt's health and eyesight had been greatly impaired by his last trip,
but although he was for a time almost totally blind, he still managed to
discharge the duties of Colonial Secretary. He was at last pensioned by
the South Australian Government, and soon afterwards returned to England.
He died at his residence at Cheltenham. Though the Home Office had
treated him disgracefully during his life, and ignored his services, he
lives for ever in the hearts of the Australians as the hero and chief
figure of the exploration of their country. When he was on his death-bed,
in 1869, the empty title of knighthood was conferred upon him. As he
could not enjoy the tardy honour, his widow, who lived until 1887, was
graciously allowed to wear the bauble.

CHAPTER 13. BABBAGE AND STUART.

13.1. B. HERSCHEL BABBAGE.

[Illustration. B. Herschel Babbage. Born 1815; died 1878.]

The unsolved problem of the extent and other details of that vast region
of salt lakes and flat country then known under the generic name of Lake
Torrens still greatly occupied the attention and excited the imaginations
of the colonists of South Australia. And the accounts brought back by the
different exploring parties were conflicting in the extreme. In 1851, two
squatters, named Oakden and Hulkes, out run-hunting, pushed westward of
Lake Torrens, and found suitable grazing country. They also discovered a
lake of fresh water, and heard from the natives of other lakes to the
north-west some fabulous legends of strange animals. Their horses giving
in, Oakden and Hulkes returned, but although they applied for a squatting
licence for the country they had been over, it was not then settled or
stocked. In 1856, Surveyor Babbage made some explorations in the field
partly traversed by Eyre and Frome. He penetrated through the plains that
were supposed to occupy the central portion of the horseshoe formation at
that time associated in the public opinion with Lake Torrens. More
fortunate than his predecessors, he found permanent water in a gum-tree
creek, and saw some fair-sized sheets of water, one of which he