Page:Tracks of McKinlay and party across Australia.djvu/180

 upon it. A little below the surface soil, which was removed by aid of a stick, was a body; or, rather, a skeleton, which seemed that of a white man. Further on another grave is pointed out; this grave has the marks of having been dug with a spade or shovel; no body, however, is found in it. Near the spot is a camping-ground, with the marks as of camels and horses that had been tied up.

The accounts we possess of Burke's expedition enable us readily to interpret all this, and to ascertain with some probability how much of the natives' reports are true. Burke's party of four arrived entire thus far on their return, but all weary and exhausted from travel and want of food, and one of them, Gray, so much so, that he lay down and expired. Dutifully his comrades sacrificed a day in order that, with their feeble strength, they might make a grave and bury him—a fatal day to them, for otherwise they would have reached the depôt at Cooper's Creek the day before Brahe and his party had left. This duty over, the three survivors pass on to the Cooper.

And now comes a probable part of the reports of the natives; they had dug up the body after Burke had left; and, most probably, had feasted on the flesh, re-interring the skeleton in another place, and in the careless way alluded to. There