After traversing scrubby country, much of which was grassed, skirting salt lakes and marshes, and crossing brooks, the party reached Esperance Bay on Sunday, 24th April. Some privations were endured from want of water and exposure to storms, and horses and men welcomed a rest on the pioneer station of the Messrs. Dempster. Five days later the Adur put into Esperance, and the explorers were enabled to obtain supplies calculated to last them to the new meeting-place. They occupied themselves for some days in preparing for the journey over the desert, and on the morning of the 9th May a start was made, and some beautifully grassed lands were traversed near Esperance Bay. Then came scrubby, sandy country studded with bare granite hills, with Mounts Howe and Merivale in the distance. Numerous brackish streams were crossed, the homes of thousands of wild fowl. Travelling was necessarily slow, and it took the party ten days to reach Israelite Bay, where the Adur was found at anchor. The horses were in a reduced condition from scarcity of feed, and they were rested from the 18th to the 30th May.
Hitherto the journey had presented some difficulties, but not to be compared with what probably lay before. The record of Eyre's journey across this tract, which he made in a solitary and almost starved condition, was not likely to encourage the explorers; but had the effect of inspiring the leader with greater caution. The next meeting-place with the Adur was Eucla, 350 miles distant. The first fifteen miles gave a foretaste of what was to follow. Steering in a northerly direction the travellers passed over salt marshes and clay pans, with dense thickets intervening, destitute of grass. Sand hills, bare sand patches, samphire flats, and dense thickets succeeded each other with monotonous regularity. Water was secured by digging in the sand, and from morning until night the wanderers toiled over a route more awfully unblessed than most parts of the earth. Forrest generally kept within hail of the coast, but occasionally he struck inland, and climbed an eminence or some high tree to scan the ugly prospect about him. The natives proved splendid assistants; whether to track strayed horses, hunt game, or with their bushman's instinct, to search for water, they were indispensable. Patches of luxuriant grass were surveyed on 3rd June, and on the 4th the men struck the coast, where for scores of miles cliffs from 300 to 400 feet high fell abruptly into the sea. The picture of these possessed a terrific and forlorn grandeur, and after cautiously approaching the edge of a precipice the explorers "all ran back quite terror-stricken by the dreadful view," says Forrest in his journal.
Divine service was read by the leader on each Sunday, and where possible the party camped throughout that day. The journey through the waterless tract of 150 miles described by Eyre was begun on the 7th. For ninety-six hours the animals drank but two gallons each, and their distress was sad to look upon. The district rendered tragical by the murder of Eyre's overseer was reached on 13th June. Here was a scene of utter gloom; the cliffs had just left the sea. The unyielding waste and reluctant strata produced an abortive growth, and the sombre and unwelcome hue the landscape had, in its very awfulness and gloom, an almost appalling sublimity. To the westward lay Point Dover, and a bold view of grand precipitous cliffs, 200 and 300 feet high. Eastward Forrest believed he could descry the spot where the much-needed water was to be found. He went forward, and on the 14th the party set up camp, thankful for having safely passed over the dreary tract so disastrous to Eyre. Resting the horses on excellent feed for some days, John Forrest and one or other of the party made excursions inland discovering some well-grassed country.
Near the camp Tommy Windich found the shoulder-blade of a horse and two small pieces of leather, relics, almost certainly, of Eyre's expedition. While in this place that explorer was obliged to kill a horse for food, and in his journal he thus explains the compulsory deed:—"Early on the morning of the 16th April, 1841, I sent the overseer to kill the unfortunate horse, which was still alive but unable to rise from the ground, having never moved from the place where he had first been found lying yesterday morning. The miserable animal was in the most wretched state possible—thin and emaciated by long and continued suffering, and labouring under some complaint that in a very few hours, at the furthest, must have terminated its life." Forrest, upon his return to Perth, presented part of the shoulder-blade and the pieces of leather to Governor Weld.
The natives seen in these unattractive places were miserable specimens, every one circumcised and entirely naked; they made pillows of much other's bodies, writes Forrest, and more resembled swine than human beings. The Eucla sand hills were observed from a distance on 1st July, and, says Forrest:—"On my pointing them out, every heart was full of joy, and, being away some distance, heard the long and continued hurrahs from the party! Eucla was all the conversation! I never before remember witnessing such joy as was evinced on this occasion by all the party." A dangerous portion of the arid route had been traversed, and remarkable success had up till now crowned the efforts of the young commander. Some twelve miles further travelling brought him on the next day to the rendezvous, and there, riding at anchor in the harbour, was the Adur. A flag-staff was erected, and a copper plate nailed to it bearing the words "Western Australia. Erected by J. Forrest, 12th July, 1870." Beacons in the harbour were painted, and provisions were landed.
The country surveyed on this stage was generally valueless, but here and there were some splendidly grassed lands. "The country passed over between longitude 126° 24' east," wrote Forrest at Eucla to the Colonial Secretary at Perth, "as a grazing country far surpasses anything I have ever seen. There is nothing in the settled portions of Western Australia equal to it, either in extent or quality; but the absence of permanent water is the great drawback .... " A gap of 140 miles had still to be spanned before safety in South Australia could be said to be reached. On 14th July the party started for the head of the Bight. For nearly ninety hours the horses only tasted one gallon of water each, given them from water-drums, and when the extreme bead of the Bight was observed on 17th July the explorers, as will be conceived, experienced great relief. The horses, which four days before were strong and in good condition, were now thoroughly exhausted, and appeared only skeletons, with sunken eyes and dilated nostrils. Their condition bespoke the trials of that journey. Nor were the explorers in much better plight. For sixty hours the leader had but about five hours' sleep; and was in constant anxiety. Under his discreet generalship the men had suffered little from thirst, but they had to perform very severe journeys on foot. Toiling over such sandy and rocky ground required a frame of iron and a will not to be easily cast down. A cart track from Peelunabie to Fowler's Bay was struck on 18th July, and loud and continued hurrahs again broke from the solitary band as they beheld this sign of civilisation. Fowler's Bay was made, in easy stages, on 17th, July. The subsequent route to Adelaide lay over the Gawler Ranges, eastward, to Port Augusta, and thence southwards to the capital. A royal welcome was extended to them in many of the towns on the way, and they were publicly welcomed in Adelaide. Their exploits were
