One night a blackfellow
walked deliberately up to the fire round which the party were assembled,
having seemingly mistaken it for his own. On discovering his mistake, he
immediately climbed up a tree, and raised a horrible din, lamenting,
sobbing, and crying, until they all removed to a short distance and
afforded him a chance of which he eagerly availed himself, of escaping.
Leichhardt followed round the Gulf shores, naming the many rivers he
crossed after friends or contributors to his expedition, or where he
could identify them, retaining the names of the coast surveys. On the 6th
of August, he reached a river which he mistook for the Albert, of Captain
Stokes, but which now bears his name, being so christened by A. C.
Gregory, who rectified his error. On this occasion, Leichhardt did not
err so widely as Burke and Wills did subsequently, when they mistook the
mouth of the Flinders for the Albert. With decreasing supplies and
increasing fatigue, they at last reached the large river in the
south-west corner of the Gulf, which he named the Roper, and here he had
the misfortune to lose four horses, and had to sacrifice the whole of his
botanical collection--a heavy loss.
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