Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/100

 that object, they did accomplish it most creditably, and have proved, continues Davis, that the unsettled parts of the interior, between Blanchewater and Carpentaria consist of something else than a howling desert.

"Started from Adelaide with the camels, etc., on 16th August, 1860," says Mr. McKinlay, in his official journal, "and overtook the remnant of the party, horses, cart, etc., nothing of any particular note occurring on the journey to Blanchewater (Mr. Baker's station) more than ordinary on such journeys." This is all very well in an official document. Not so, however, with Mr. Davis, who finds a world of pleasant incident in the region of the settlements, and a great deal more of hospitality than in the unexplored world beyond. Here are the occurrences en route to Blanchewater, the outside settlement for the time being in the colony's progress, Mr. Davis being narrator.

On the 14th August, 1861, the horses, carts, and six of the "Burke Relief Party," under the command of Mr. John McKinlay, started overland for Gawler, a town some twenty-five miles distant from Adelaide, where they were hospitably received by Mr. R. T. Poole, of the Willaston Hotel, and whose son, Mr. R. Poole, better known as "Bobby," formed one of the party. Nothing