Sturt was accompanied by Poole, as second in command, Browne, who was a thorough bushman and an excellent surgeon, accompanied him as a friend; with them also went McDouall Stuart, as draftsman, whose fame as an explorer afterwards equalled that of his leader, besides twelve men, eleven horses, thirty bullocks, one boat and boat carriage, one horse dray, one spring cart, three bullock drays, two hundred sheep, four kangaroo dogs, and two sheep dogs. Eyre accompanied the expedition as far as Lake Victoria, which point they reached on the 10th of September, 1844. Here Eyre left them, and on the 11th of October the explorers arrived at Williorara, the place where they intended leaving the Darling for the interior. The appearance of this watercourse very much disappointed Sturt, he had hoped from the account of the natives to find in it a fair-sized creek, heading from a low range, distantly visible to the north-west; instead, he found it a mere channel for the flood water of the Darling, distributing it into some shallow lakes, back from the river, a distance of some eight or nine miles, Sturt, as a first step dispatched Poole and Stuart to the range, to see if they could obtain any view of the country to the north-west. They were absent four days, and returned with the rather startling intelligence, that from the top of a peak in the range, Poole had seen a large lake studded with islands. Although in his published journal, written long afterwards, Sturt makes light of Poole's fancied lake, which, of course, was the effect of mirage, at that time his ardent fancy made him believe that he was on the eve of a great discovery. In a letter to Mr. Morphett, of Adelaide, he writes:-- "Poole has just returned from the ranges. I have not time to write over again. He says there are high ranges to the N. and N.W., and water, a sea extending along the horizon from S.W. by S., and ten E. of N., in which there are a number of islands and lofty ranges as far as the eye can reach. What is all this? Are we to be prosperous? I hope so, and I am sure you do. To-morrow we start for the ranges, and then for the waters, the strange waters, on which boat never swam, and over which flag never floated. But both shall ere long. We have the heart of the interior laid open to us, and shall be off with a flowing, sheet in a few days. Poole says the sea was a deep blue, and that in the midst of it was a conical island of great height. When will you hear from me again?" Poor Sturt! no boat of his was ever to float on that visionary sea, nor his flag to wave over its dream waters.