SUCCESSFUL EXPLORATION THROUGH THE INTERIOR OF AUSTRALIA,
FROM MELBOURNE TO THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA.
FROM THE JOURNALS AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM JOHN WILLS.
EDITED BY HIS FATHER, WILLIAM WILLS.
LONDON:
RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET,
PUBLISHER IN ORDINARY TO HER MAJESTY.
1863.
DEDICATED, BY PERMISSION,
TO HIS GRACE
THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE, K.G.,
ETC., ETC., ETC.
BY HIS GRACE'S FAITHFUL SERVANT,
WILLIAM WILLS.
JANUARY, 1863.
PREFACE.
A life terminating before it had reached its meridian, can scarcelybe expected to furnish materials for an extended biography. But theimportant position held by my late son, as second in command inwhat is now so well-known as the Burke and Wills ExploringExpedition across the Island Continent of Australia; thecomplicated duties he undertook as Astronomer, Topographer,Journalist, and Surveyor; the persevering skill with which hedischarged them, suggesting and regulating the march of the partythrough a waste of eighteen hundred miles, previously untrodden byEuropean feet; his courage, patience, and heroic death; hisself-denial in desiring to be left alone in the desert withscarcely a hope of rescue, that his companions might find a chancefor themselves;--these claims on public attention demand that hisname should be handed down to posterity in something more than amere obituary record, or an official acknowledgment of services.
A truthful, though brief, memoir of my son's short career, mayfurnish a stimulating example, by showing how much can beaccomplished in a few years, when habits of prudence and industryhave been acquired in early youth. He fell a victim to errors notoriginating with himself; but he resigned his life without amurmur, having devoted it to science and his country. His death,with the circumstances attending it, furnishes an application ofthe lines of a favourite poet, which he often quoted withadmiration:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And departing leave behind us
Footsteps on the sands of time;
Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er Life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwreck'd brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
The following pages are the only tribute a fond and mourning fathercan offer to the memory of one who, while living, merited andreciprocated his warmest affections.
WILLIAM WILLS.
London, January, 1863.
THE LAST HOURS OF MR. WILLS.
Painted by Scott. Melbourne.
London: Richard Bentley, 1863.
Engraved by J. Saddle.
CONTENTS.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.
Birth.
Infancy.
Boyhood and Early Education.
Youthful Traits of Character.
My two Sons leave England for Australia.
Incidents of the Voyage.