This was the last expedition of the Surveyor-General, and the year before concluded the active work of his old rival in the field, Charles Sturt. Both men had done wonders in the cause of exploration; but the genii of plentiful seasons and bountiful vegetation seems to have been the forerunner of Sir Thomas, whilst a demon of drought and aridity stalked in front of Sturt. CHAPTER VII. Kennedy traces the Victoria in its final course south--Re-named the Barcoo--First notice of the PITURI chewing natives--Leichhardt's second Expedition--Failure and Return--Leichhardt's last Expedition--His absolute disappearance--Conjectures as to his fate--Kennedy starts from Rockingham Bay to Cape York--Scrubs and swamps--Great exertions--Hostile natives--Insufficiency of supplies provided--Dying horses--Main party left in Weymouth Bay--Another separation at Shelburne Bay--Murder of Kennedy at the Escape River--Rescue of Jacky the black boy--His pathetic tale of suffering--Failure to find the camp at Shelburne Bay--Rescue of but two survivors at Weymouth Bay--The remainder starved to death--Von Mueller in the Australian Alps--Western Australia--Landor and Lefroy, in 1843--First expedition of the brothers Gregory, in 1846--Salt lakes and scrub--Lieutenant Helpman sent to examine the coal seam discovered--Roe, in 1848--His journey to the east and to the south--A. C. Gregory attempts to reach the Gascoyne--Foiled by the nature of the country--Discovers silver ore on the Murchison--Governor Fitzgerald visits the mine--Wounded by the natives--Rumour of Leichhardt having been murdered by the blacks--Hely's expedition in quest of him--Story unfounded--Austin's explorations in Western Australia--Terrible scrubs--Poison camp-- Determined efforts to the north--Heat and thirst--Forced to return. The importance of deciding the final course of the Victoria was at once recognised, and Kennedy was chosen to lead a lightly equipped party. However convinced Sir Thomas Mitchell was of the affluent of the Victoria being in the Gulf of Carpentaria, others did not at once fall in with the notion. It was evident that the vast flooded plains, and many channels of Cooper's Creek absorbed immense quantities of water from the interior, and apparently this water came from the north-east. What more probable than that the Victoria was lost there. Kennedy followed the old track to the river, found by Mitchell, and reaching his lowest camp on the 13th of August, commenced to run the river down from there. On the first day's journey he met a native, from whom he learnt the aboriginal name of the Victoria, the BARCOO.