Remaining twelve days at Israelite Bay, where ample food and water were obtained, the further march to Eucla was accomplished amid the usual vicissitudes. When this chief point of the whole tour was seen, there was great joy among the party, and the cliffs from which they first sighted Eucla rang with many English hurrahs. They had overcome the most difficult portion of their journey, and so glad were they that day (1st July) that John Forrest wrote in his diary:—"I trust we all recognised with sincerity and thankfulness the guiding and protecting Hand which had brought us through in safety." The Adur was soon sighted at the port, and again the explorers gave their horses rest while the head of the expedition went inland to observe the nature of the country. They left Eucla, looked once more on the Adur, which was returning to Fremantle, and again were lost to the sight of their fellow men. They travelled along the lonely silent route by day, and the primeval woods echoed with the sounds of white men and their horses. They camped at night, with little to relieve the monotonous silence but the clank of the horses' hobbles as they browsed on the scanty grass. Fowler's Bay was the last but one point of the coast line touched, and then, nearer to civilisation, the party made their way across the jutting land to Port Augusta, at the head of Spencer's Gulf, South Australia. From thence they soon journeyed to Adelaide, and their arduous exploration was completed. Once more the young man had proved himself a highly efficient commander, and with the willing aid of his companions was thus the second to penetrate over that portion of the continent. He had proved the feasibility of the overland telegraph line, which was subsequently erected. The credit due to John Forrest during this expedition cannot be over-estimated. His reception in Adelaide was a highly cordial one. Parties went out from the city to meet him on the road, and a long procession escorted him to Government House, where the Governor (Sir James Ferguson) paid him many compliments, and thanked him for his great services. He and his party were received with recurring cheers in the streets, and the populace eagerly looked upon the men who had braved such a journey, and examined with interest their accoutrements and horses. The latter were somewhat weakened by their long trip of nearly 2,000 miles, but the men appeared bronzed and hardy. After being much féted in Adelaide, Mr. Forrest left that city on board a steamer, and reached Perth on the 27th September, 1870. Here his reception was a royal one, and great were the acclamations of all classes when the hero of the day entered the capital. A four-in-hand drag was sent to meet him as soon as he landed at Fremantle, and a procession of carriages and men on horseback followed him on the way to Perth, to the strains of music from the Volunteer Band. His Excellency Governor Weld, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, met him five miles from Perth, and received him with the heartiest congratulations and expressions of friendship. The young man, of a few months more than twenty-three years old, was conducted in heroic fashion to the boundaries of Perth, where the Governor handed him over to the municipal council members, who in their turn conducted him to the Government offices. An enthusiastic crowd had gathered at this point; flags were flying from the town hall and housetops. Upon alighting from his carriage, John Forrest was heartily welcomed by his Excellency and the people, and the chairman of the City Council (Mr. Glyde) presented him with an address of welcome. A complimentary banquet was subsequently given to Mr. Forrest, when the chairman (Captain Roe), whose name will ever be found in histories of the colony in connection with exploration, proposed the toast of the guest in highly flattering language. The Governor and the leading men of the colony were present on this occasion, which, with his previous reception, must have proved an ample reward to the explorer for his services to science and the colony. The Governor sent a letter of congratulation to Mr. Forrest's father, and also one to the explorer himself. Thus ended his second travels of exploration.
And now followed a few more quiet months in Perth. But it was not long before he again desired to more completely explore certain portions of Western Australia. His previous success had made him anxious to penetrate through the interior to South Australia, to prove to the world what the country contained, and the wisdom of certain speculations as to there being a great watershed in the centre and northern part of this colony. He longed for more enterprise—for more exploits. Upon his return from the previous expedition he resumed his duties in the Survey Office, and in July, 1872, he wrote to the Surveyor-General, Mr. (now Sir) Malcolm Fraser, suggesting that he should in the following year leave Champion Bay, follow the Murchison River to its source, and afterwards go right through the interior to the overland telegraph line in South Australia, which was then nearly completed. This undertaking was an immense one, and would entail great privations, and even considerable risk of loss of life, owing to the water difficulty. Yet, could he but accomplish it, light would be brought to bear on the dark interior, and the geographical and scientific results would be substantial. The proposition was forwarded to Governor Weld, and by him to the Legislative Council, with an encouraging minute advising that the proposals be agreed to. In this minute his Excellency wrote:— "Should he (Mr. Forrest) succeed in this journey, his name will fitly go down to posterity as that of the man who solved the last remaining problem in the Australian Continent; and, whoever may come after him, he will have been the last (and certainly, when the means at his disposal and the difficulties of the undertaking are considered, by no means the least) of the great Australian explorers." The requisite grant of money and leave of absence were made by the Legislative Council. But it became known that South Australian explorers were striving at the time to cross the continent. This, and it being necessary for Mr. Forrest to immediately make very important surveys, caused the trip to be postponed. The South Australian explorers—two or three parties—were unable to negotiate the task, and, therefore, on the 18th March, 1874, Mr. John Forrest left Perth for Champion Bay, whence he started on his perilous journey on the 1st April. His brother again accompanied him, and two other white men, and two natives, one of whom, Tommy Windlob, had been with him on his previous expeditions.
If the reader for one moment conjures up to the mind the dangers which lay before the young explorers on this journey,
