scrub and sand plain monopolised the country, except for granite hills which disturbed the uniformity of the horizon and appeared like unclothed rocky islands projecting sheer out of a dreary sable sea.
Here the men were cast into a dangerous dilemma. For days and days their horses had subsisted on a precarious supply of grass, and they pushed towards the ranges hoping that they would prove fertile. Almost their lives depended on the productivity of the neighbouring country. Their distress of mind was keen when they found the hills to be utterly sterile. Anxiously pushing to the south they happily came upon an oasis, where they soon obtained abundance of feed and water. On subsequent days they visited Mount Rugged, well named by Eyre, because of its rough, rent appearance. It contained considerable quartz, and was cut by numerous remarkable fissures, bare, repelling.
As a bird's-eye view obtained from an eminence presented little hope of good country being found further east, on 28th November Lieutenant Roe began the return journey to Cape Riche, taking a more southerly route than the out-track. The prevailing spirit of these regions was funereal and sullen. Rugged hills, with yawning rents on their sides, rose out of the dreary plains of stunted vegetation, and showed signs of mammoth disintegration. Presumably, they were once bold, elevated peaks. They frowned upon the travellers, offering no encouragement to those who would explore them. In the main, however, better country was traversed on the home journey; and tracts north of Esperance Bay, with others towards Cape Riche, were suitable for settlement. Roe named Howick Hill, Mount Merivale, Mount Hawes, Gage River, Stokes Inlet, Young River, Mount Desmond, Eyre Range, Phillips River, Culham Inlet, Mount Bland, Fitzgerald River and Inlet, Gairdner River, and Gordon Inlet. On Phillips River he discovered numerous evidences of coal, and extensive beds of the same mineral on Fitzgerald River. The coal on the latter gave off an excellent flame in burning, and collecting specimens, Lieutenant Roe conveyed them to Perth. He believed this discovery of coal would prove of paramount advantage to the colony, and being on the line of route of ocean steamers, hoped that Fitzgerald's Inlet would come to be a coaling station. The surrounding country was examined more critically. Some time was spent there, and numerous separate evidences of coal were found.
Suddenly while they were pursuing their quest, and while crossing an uncouth sand patch, the party observed the skeleton of a white man at their feet. Nearby were the clothes of the dead man. His was another dismal story consummated by the desolate parts of Australia. Three sailors landed from a Tasmanian whaler, near Middle Island, in 1847, and proceeded to walk to Albany, 350 miles away. Two died of starvation and exhaustion; one on this sand patch, the other apparently succumbed among the sand hills not far away. Roe collected the remains, and buried them in a quiet hollow west of Cape Knob. A mound of limestone, with a wooden slab, was raised as a memorial. Roe returned to Cape Riche, and proceeded to Perth, visiting Bunbury on the route.
For some years exploration had been intrepidly and actively followed in the eastern colonies, and the inland country was cut in numerous directions. Most eager among eager explorers was Leichardt, who made successful trips in the north-eastern parts of Australia. Eventually he entertained the bold but dangerous project of crossing the continent from east to west. It was a task as immense and risky as any ever essayed in the history of the world; but Leichardt's courage quelled not.
In 1847 he started out with eight men and provisions estimated to be sufficient for a two years' journey. The band seemed rather to be bent on colonising than on settlement, for before them they drove a flock of 180 sheep, and herds of 970 goats and 10 bullocks. They were mounted on and accompanied by 15 horses and 13 mules. Progress with such a number of animals was necessarily slow. Leichardt endeavoured to first follow the route of his expedition of 1844, when he crossed from Moreton Bay to Port Essington. It is not within the province of our history to give the details of this trip, as Western Australia was not reached. With such a cumbersome equipment there was but a small chance of success, and after seven months of disasters the party returned. They had lost all their cattle and sheep.
His unfortunate experiences did not dishearten Leichardt, and with imposing daring he again made arrangements to resolve the doubts concerning the interior of Australia, and to find a path to the western colony. A small party was organised with difficulty, and with 50 bullocks, 13 mules, 12 horses, 270 goats, 800 lbs. flour, &c., went on its way in 1848. A tragedy as grim and pathetic as any ever chronicled must have ensued. No one ever learnt what fate befel the explorer, and he found a nameless resting place somewhere in the inhospitable deserts of the interior. His last message to the world was conveyed in a letter written on April, 1848, on the Cogoon River, Fitzroy Downs. Hopeful and elated, he wrote:—"Seeing how much I have been favoured in my present progress, I am full of hopes that our Almighty Protector will allow me to bring my darling scheme to a successful termination." Then he entered the darkness. He said nothing of the track he proposed to pursue. Expeditions were organised to ascertain his fate, but few clues were found. Natives told stories of the murder of white men, and trees were found marked with the letter "L," but "Leichardt himself, on previous journeys, had met with trees so marked, by whom is unknown." Remarkable it is that not one skeleton of his stock was discovered. Whether he was murdered by natives and his body buried, or whether he died of starvation, and his bones left to whiten like those of his beasts under a tropical sun, cannot he told. The wild interior wastes hold their secret with sullen dumbness; and not Leichardt's secret only, but those of many intrepid prospectors and more humble travellers.
Opinion in regard to forced labour had gradually changed during the depression. Throughout the history of Western Australian settlement colonists had been constantly struggling to obtain permanent prosperity and its outcome—individual wealth. We have traced the passing of years through a series of dispiriting labours, at the end of which the people were little, if any, better off than when they began. Certainly, they had instituted order in the land, cleared parts of the wilderness, built themselves houses, and planted gardens; but though they possessed large areas of land, woolly flocks, towns, vessels, and other real property, yet they were practically without that symbol of wealth—gold. At what a cost years of labour they had obtained these we have slightly shown. But one difficulty was overcome only for its place to he taken by another.
In the thirties a few settlers at King George's Sound petitioned for the introduction of a band of convicts, but their artless request met with short shrift. Colonists shunned the thought that their country should be made the dumping ground of the outcasts of British society. But, the accumulating series of struggles, amid few bright gleams of permanent prosperity, led one person here
