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themes for general conversation. The return journey was made by sea and Perth was reached on 27th September, after an absence of 182 days. A banquet was tendered to John Forrest, who recorded that throughout this long and trying exploration not one murmur of discontent was uttered by any of the party.

The sum of of £200 was voted by the Government to the explorers, and distributed as follows:—John Forrest £75, Alexander Forrest £50, H. McLarty and R. Osborne £25 each, and the two natives £12 10s. each. The leader was thanked in an official minute by Governor Weld, and the people of the colony were loud in their expressions of approval of the work done by the men.

The furthest point reached by Forrest in 1869, and the country seen on this last trip along the south coast, did not encourage much hope as to the fruitful nature of the interior. Alexander Forrest now took charge of a party, consisting of Geo. Monger, Richard Burges, Hector McLarty (police), James Sweeney (farrier), and two native assistants, with seventeen horses and three months' provisions. The band started from York on 11th August, 1871, and intended to make an effort to get through the waterless tracts east of the Hampton Plains, found by Hunt, and, if possible, reach the good country sighted near the border by John Forrest the year before. During the preceding trip Mr. Alexander Forrest had proved as hardy as his brother, and hence the command was entrusted to him. This was another effort to penetrate the interior deserts in the general desire of completing the main exploration of Australia. Mr. Forrest reached the Hampton Plains, already described, on 26th August, and following the example of Hunt set up a suitable camp as a base. He made several flying trips N.N.E., E.N.E., E.S.E., and on every occasion was beaten back by the want of water. Barren wilds greeted him on every side, and finally he was compelled to raise his camp, and, foiled in the eastern track, he made for the south coast. In this he and his companions were destined to endure hardship. The country was little better than that to the east, but finally, on 12th October, Mount Rugged was surveyed, and on the 18th Esperance. Mr. Forrest characterised the tracts traversed as worthless, except for one isolated patch of 20,000 acres, which, however, did not present the advantage of surface water. The balance of the land was covered with dense thickets, scrub, and spinifex.

The South Australian Government and liberal and enthusiastic private persons were now bent on sending parties out to push overland from Central South Australia to the west coast. The overland telegraph line supplied a base, and numerous and determined efforts were made to get over the sullen wastes which stretched from there. Giles, Warburton, and Gosse were entrusted with the command of these expeditions. Ernest Giles, an old digger and Government official, had long entertained the desire to exploit these regions, about which much speculation had existed, and in this he was encouraged by that enthusiastic student of geographical science, Dr. Von Mueller. Because Government or private subscriptions were not forthcoming these two gentlemen drew from their slender means and staked their little all on penetrating to the west. As proof of Giles' indomitable energy it is enough to say that between 1872-6 he made five journeys into the interior. He left the telegraph line on his first westward trip in August, 1872. His party, equipped at the expense of Baron Von Mueller and himself, consisted of Mr. Carmichael and A. Robinson, with fifteen horses. On 4th August be left Port Augusta, and on 22nd August turned his back on Chambers Pillar. First he went through Glen Edith to Gills Range, where was some excellent pastoral country. Lake Amadeus (named after King of Spain) stopped his western progress; it was composed of treacherous blue mud encrusted with salt, and from a distance made a fantastic picture. For the rest, the country was made up of barren sand hills, spinifex, mulga, and mallee scrub. Giles nearly reached longitude 130° east. After struggling over the bills and plains he started on his return to the telegraph line on 1st October, and he writes:"—I was only too thankful to get out this horrible region, and this frightful encampment into which fates had drawn me, alive ..... I might condemn this region as a useless desert. I can truly say it is dry, stony, scrubby, and barren." On 21st November he and his party reached the line at the Finke and Hugh Junction.

The first attempt of Giles was not encouraging, but the public and press urged the South Australian Government to persist having the interior explored from Central Mount Stuart to Perth. Mr. Thomas Elder (afterwards Sir Thomas), one of the most enterprising of Australian pastoralists, had recently introduced several camels, and he placed them at the disposal of the Government. The official arrangements, after advancing a few steps, broke down, but Mr. Elder, with a liberality which distinguished his whole career, determined that a trip should be made. Captain Walter H. Hughes joined him, and the two gentlemen organised a party, the leadership of which was entrusted to Major Warburton. The South Australian Government fitted up a second party in charge of a Government surveyor, William Gosse.

Major P.E. Warburton, H.E., I.C.S., was the first to go out. Although sixty years of age he did not flinch at the immense undertaking before him. He was born in Cheshire in 1818, entered the Navy in 1825; and retired with the rank of Major in 1853. Since the year 1856 he had held command of several exploring expeditions in South Australia. During this trip he was the first to use camels in Australian exploration. He had under him his son, E. Warburton, J.W. Lewis, Sahleh and Halleem (two Afghan camel-drivers), Dennis White (cook), and Charley, an intelligent native, with four riding, twelve baggage, and one spare camel, and six months' provisions. On 1st September, 1872, the courageous old man departed from Adelaide, and on 15th April, 1873, be left Alice Springs. The subsequent course was tortuous, marked by one disaster after another. Almost from the outset Warburton had difficulty in obtaining water, and varied his course, turned back, and went to the north and south, in his efforts to discover it. In this way his journey was agonisingly protracted, but with splendid courage, yet possibly with a want of discretion in bushcraft, he, though nearly dead, surmounted the deserts. From Alice Springs he turned in and out, past Burt Creek, Mount Hay, Dashwood Creek, Central Mount Wedge, to two beautiful glens, which he named Glen Elder and Glen Hughes. There one of his camels ran back towards civilisation, and so fleet was it that his men could not come up to it again. On 12th May he observed, in the midst of the desert, a total eclipse of the moon, and on 24h May, while surrounded by the silent monotony of parched cotton bush country, he drank in rum the health of the Queen, in honour of her birthday. Although beset with dangers, hushed in desolate wilderness which no white man had seen before, and thousands of miles from any town, the old naval officer and his companions drank the toast with unfeigned enthusiasm. On 5th June, after penetrating a scrubby region and trailing over dreary sand hills, the party first entered Western Australia—slightly north of latitude 22° south, near Mount Russell. But try as they would they could not pierce the waterless tract which stretched beyond, and Warburton had to recross the border to the last watering-place. Then some time was spent in sending out one or other of his men to search for a better route. One Afghan now became so seriously ill with