Thence he intended to strike
north-west, hoping thus to avoid the gloomy environs of Lake Torrens, and
its treacherous bed.
At Moorundi, on the Murray, he was met by Eyre, then resident magistrate
at that place, and here the party mustered and made their start.
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.
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