Australia

Proceedings in Melbourne. Meeting of the Exploration Committee. Tardy Resolutions. Departure of Mr. Howitt. Patriotic Effort of Mr. Orkney. South Australian Expedition under Mr. McKinlay. News of White Men and Camels having been seen by Natives in the Interior. Certain Intelligence of the Fate of the Explorers reaches Melbourne.

The attempt to reach South Australia and Adelaide by Mount Hopeless. Mistake of selecting that Route. Mr. Wills's Journals from the 23rd of April to the 29th of June, 1861. Adventures with the Natives. Discovery of Nardoo as a Substitute for Food. Mr. Burke and King go in search of Natives as a last resource. Mr. Wills left alone in the Desert. The Last Entry in his Journal.

King's Narrative. Mr. Burke and King go in search of the Natives, as a last resource. Death of Mr. Burke. King returns and finds Mr. Wills dead in the Gunyah. He falls in with the Natives and wanders about with them until 

Letters of sympathy and condolence; from Sir Henry Barkly; Major Egerton Warburton; A.J. Baker, Esquire; P.A. Jennings, Esquire; Dr. Mueller; The Council of Ballaarat East; Robert Watson, Esquire; John Lavington Evans, Esquire Meeting at Totnes. Resolution to erect a Monument to Mr. Wills. Proceedings in the Royal Geographical Society of London. Letter from Sir Roderick Murchison to Dr. Wills. Dr. Wills's Reply. The Lost Explorers, a poetical tribute. Concluding Observations.

Governor King received the news of the wreck of the Porpoise immediately after the arrival of the Hope in Port Jackson, on the evening of September 8th. King and his family were at dinner when to his great amazement Flinders was announced.

When Bligh's expedition returned, Europe was staggering under the shock of the French Revolution. The head of Louis XVI was severed in January; the knife of Charlotte Corday was plunged into the heart of Marat in July; Marie Antoinette, the grey discrowned Queen of thirty-eight, mounted the scaffold in October. The guillotine was very busy, and France was frantic amid internal disruption and the menace of a ring of foes.

Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen was born at Caen, the ancient and picturesque capital of Normandy, on April 13th, 1769. Left an orphan at the age of twelve, his education was superintended by a friend of his father, who had been a public official. At the end of his schooldays he studied law under an advocate of local celebrity, M. Lasseret.

In order that the importance of the work done by Flinders may be adequately appreciated, it is necessary to understand the state of information concerning Australian geography before the time of his discoveries. Not only did he complete the main outlines of the map of the continent, but he filled in many details in parts that had been traversed by his predecessors.

At four o'clock in the afternoon of December 17th the Cumberland entered Port Louis, where Flinders learnt that Le Geographe had sailed for France on the previous day. As soon as he could land he went ashore to present himself to the Governor, whom he found to be at dinner.

Apart from Admiral Pasley, two officers who participated in Lord Howe's victory on "the glorious First of June," had an important influence upon the later career of Flinders. The first of these, Captain John Hunter, had served on the flagship Queen Charlotte. The second, Henry Waterhouse, had been fifth lieutenant on the Bellerophon. Flinders was under the orders of both of them on his next voyage.