running. Several vessels—the Wild Way, at Roebourne, and the Sea Ripple, Annie Beaton and Emilienne, at Fremantle were driven ashore in October. On 18th May, 1876, the cutter Gem suddenly foundered at Fremantle, and crew and passengers—ten persons—were drowned. The steamer Georgette had an unfortunate history. On the 30th November, 1876, while midway between Cape Naturaliste and Hamelin, she sprang a leak. After vainly working the pumps the captain made all speed for the shore, and the lifeboat was lowered and filled with passengers. The boat stove against the side of the steamer, and five persons were drowned. The vessel was run on a sand bank near the Margaret River. A member of the Bussell family, Miss Grace Bussell, performed such meritorious deeds during this wreck that in 1878 she was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society. When news reached her of the disaster she mounted a horse, dashed through the bush into the surf, and, at the risk of her own life, rescued several passengers. Her words of hope cheered many who were hard beset, and for a time, when her horse's legs became entangled in a rope, she was in danger of drowning. So many corageous deeds were done by this young lady that she was widely known as the Australian "Grace Darling."
What might be termed the consummation in Australian exploration was now drawing nigh. In 1856 A.C. Gregory penetrated a considerable portion of North Australia; and in 1862 John McD. Stuart, after a stern fight, reached the north coast from Adelaide, told the world what the centre of Australia contained, and made the overland telegraph line possible. Leichardt, Eyre, Mitchell, Kennedy, Burke and Wills, McKinley, Sturt, and others, had each succeeded in divesting the remote interior of Australia of many of its mysteries, but, except along the coasts, the prodigious stretch of country separating Stuart's route from the western coast was wholly unknown. When these seemingly impregnable areas were traversed, the main parts of Australia were practically explored.
Up to 1869 the interior of Western Australia and the borders of South Australia defied the strength and resolute wills of explorers. On every side whither these devoted men went they vainly looked out over huge prospects of sterile deserts, and they could but speculate as to whether these Saharas ran over the whole interior. Stuart saw dreary deserts bounding the east of South Australia; Eyre narrowly escaped immolation amid barren wildernesses the south; A.C. Gregory was stopped in his progress into North-Western Australia by wilds as forbidding as any man ever entered: and Hunt, Lefroy, the Gregorys, and others, so far as they had gone from the west, were forced back by the great desolation which ranged before them. Several men of hardy frames and unbending wills set themselves the task of traversing these withered tracts, and for some years exploring enterprise was centered on the Western Australian deserts. The stories of their journeys are stirring, so full are they of heroic suffering. John Forrest, in 1869, pushed closer to the heart of these regions than any previous explorer. He went out, primarily, to resolve some rumours as to the fate of Leichardt. In 1866 Messrs. Hunt and F. Roe, while sitting round their camp fire east of the Hampton Plains, were told by a native who had joined them a circumstantial story of white men lost still further east. These men, said the native, were killed at a place called Guidilbin, and their bones still lay under the brush that was thrown over them. The murderers retained the rugs, guns, and pannikins taken from the white men. Other blacks corroborated the ingenious narrative then unfolded. Mr. J.H. Monger, while east of York, was told by his native guide that he could point out the precise locality of the murder, and that he had even seen the bones near where the murder was committed—upon the shore of a large lake while the white men were making damper. Naturally, interest was excited, for the probabilities pointed to the murdered men being representatives of the Leichardt party, and hopes were entertained that a mystery which long years of patient search had not fathomed would at last be probed. Dr. Von Mueller, the ardent botanist who accompanied A.C. Gregory in 1856, proposed to the Government of Western Australia that a party be equipped to prove the native's story, and offered to become its leader. With laudable enterprise the Government agreed to a vote for such a purpose, but Dr. Von Mueller now found that his other engagements prevented his leaving Victoria. The command was given to John Forrest, a young officer in the local Survey Department. The Surveyor-General, Captain Roe, prepared a set of instructions concerning the route to be followed, and desiring Mr. Forrest examine the country for specimens in botany, geology, and zoology. Mr. George Monger, who accompanied Mr. J.H. Monger on his trip, was appointed second in command, Mr. Malcolm Hamersley, third, and the party was completed by David Morgan, a shoeing smith, and two natives, Tommy Windich and Jemmy Mungaro. Jemmy was the native guide who had accompanied Mr. Monger. Sixteen horses were taken.
On 15th April, 1869, Mr. Forrest left Perth; on the 19th he proceeded from Newcastle to Mombekine, and on the 26th he reached Yarraging, the most remote station to the eastward, the property of Messrs. Ward and Adams. Additional provisions were purchased from these gentlemen, and on the 27th, with three months' food supplies, the bounds of settlement were left. At intervals the explorers tapped points visited by Austin. Mr. Forrest usually preceded the main body, picking the route from one native well to another. The country was exceedingly barren, and only occasionally were patches of good grass met with. On 1st May Danjinning was reached, and there Forrest saw the tracks of Austin's horses, which were still distinct, though fifteen years had elapsed since that explorer had visited this spot. The route thence was forced through dense acacia and cypress thickets. The prospect was uninviting indeed; the ground was barren, and it was only where bare granite hills rose out of the lean land that sufficient grass was obtained. Hard by these rugged outcrops, water and feed were usually discovered. Nine native friends of Jemmy's were introduced to the explorers on 5th May; they had a story to tell. At a place called Bouincabbajibimar, they said, white men and horses had died a long time ago, and a gun and other relics were still to be found. Forrest pushed on, hoping that this might be the locality he wished to reach, but when he arrived at Curroning he feared that the remains must be those of nine of Austin's horses, poisoned at Poison Rock. Near Coorbedar he traversed rough low quartz hills covered with stunted acacia. The nine natives accompanied him until the 12th May, when twenty-five others were fallen in with near to a shallow lake. They were all friends, and, out on the lonely waste there, these desert children welcomed the explorers to their birthplace with a grand corroboree.
Upon questioning this main body of natives, Forrest was informed that the remains at Bouincabbajibimar were those of horses. As they pointed in the direction of Poison Rock, the leader was satisfied that they referred to Austin's horses, and he steered more eastwards, leaving the natives in the rear. For weary miles the way was lined with monotonous thickets of acacia and cypress, and an occasional granite outcrop. Presently, the party emerged upon immense lake, which Forrest named Lake Barlee, in compliment to the Colonial Secretary. From where he stood, he
