Once more a fresh chapter in the history of exploration has to be turned. All around the coast the fringe of settlement was rapidly creeping, the gaps of unoccupied country growing smaller and fewer every year. The adventurous traveller who now forced his way through to the late uninhabited north coast would find several infant settlements ready to receive him, and he would no longer be obliged to retrace, with weakened frame and exhausted resources, his toilsome outward track. The last stage of Australia's history was about to set in; the telegraph wire was soon to follow on Stuart's footsteps, and the ring of communication to be nearly completed around the continent. CHAPTER XI. Settlement formed at Somerset, Cape York, by the Queensland Government--Expedition of the Brothers Jardine--Start from Carpentaria Downs Station--Disaster by fire--Reduced resources--Arrive at the coast of the Gulf--Hostility of the blacks--Continual attacks--Horses mad through drinking salt water--Poison country--An unfortunate camp--Still followed by the natives--Rain and bog--Dense scrub--Efforts of the two brothers to reach Somerset--Final Success--Lull in exploration--Private parties--Settlement at Escape Cliffs by South Australia--J. M'Kinlay sent up--Narrow escape from floods--Removal of the settlement to Port Darwin--M'Intyre's expedition in search of Leichhardt--His death--Hunt in Western Australia--False reports about traces of Leichhardt--Forrest's first expedition--Sent to investigate the report of the murder of white men in the interior--Convinced of its want of truth--Unpromising country--Second expedition to Eucla--The cliffs of the Great Bight--Excursion to the north--Safe arrival at Eucla. The year 1863 was one of great activity in the northern part of Australia. At Cape York the Imperial Government had, on the recommendation of Sir George Bowen, the first Governor of Queensland, decided to form a settlement. Mr. Jardine, the police magistrate of Rockhampton was selected to take command, and a detachment of marines was sent out to be stationed there. At the Gulf of Carpentaria the township of Burketown was springing into existence, under the care of William Landsborough, the explorer; and in the north of Arnhern's Land, M'Kinlay was looking for a suitable site to establish a port for South Australia. Somerset, the formation of which led to the expedition of the Jardine brothers, was formed on the mainland at the Albany Pass, opposite the island of that name. Mr. Jardine was to proceed by sea to his new sphere of office., but anticipating the want of fresh meat at the new settlement, he entered into an arrangement with the Government for his two sons to take a herd of cattle overland to there. Somerset was near the fatal scene of poor Kennedy's death, and knowing what tremendous difficulties that explorer had met with on the east coast, it was decided to attempt the western fall, through the unknown country fronting the Gulf.