Towards The End Of 1847, Accompanied By Eight White Men, Two Black-Boys,
And Provisions To Last Two Years, He Started, Taking With Him One Hundred
And Eighty Sheep, Two Hundred And Seventy Goats, Forty Bullocks, Fifteen
Horses, And Thirty Mules.
After travelling with little or no progress for
seven months, during which time the whole stock of cattle and sheep were
lost, the party returned.
Not discouraged by this disastrous termination
to his scheme, Leichardt resolved on another expedition with the same
object in view.
Before many months he, with the same number of companions but with fewer
animals, set out again. On the 3rd of April, 1848, he wrote from
Fitzroy Downs, expressing hope and confidence as to the ultimate
success of the expedition. Since that date, neither tidings nor traces
have been found of the lost explorer, nor of any of his men or
belongings. Several search-parties were organised and a large reward
offered, but all in vain - and the scene of his disaster remains
undiscovered to this day. Many and various are the theories propounded
with regard to his fate. It is held by some that the whole party were
caught in the floods of the Cooper. This creek is now known to spread
out, after heavy rains at its source, to a width of between forty and
fifty miles. So heavy and sudden is the rain in semi-tropical Australia,
that a traveller may be surrounded by flood-waters, while not a drop of
local rain may fall.
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