His route had been through a country so easy to
penetrate and well watered, that on one night only, had the party camped
without water. The blacks, with the exception of the time when Mr.
Gilbert was killed, were neither troublesome nor hostile, beyond
occasionally threatening them. Game was fairly plentiful, and compared
with the obstacles that beset Sturt, Eyre, and Mitchell, the footsteps of
the explorers had been through a garden of Eden.
But what took the public fancy the most was a certain halo of romance
surrounding the journey, partly from the report of the death of the
traveller having been circulated, and partly from the trip having been
successful in reaching the goal aimed at, and attaining the results
desired, namely, an available and habitable route to the settlement at
Port Essington. All these circumstances, combined with the very slender
means which had enabled the young and enthusiastic explorer to succeed,
threw around Leichhardt's reputation a glamour, which, fortunately for
his reputation, the mystery surrounding the total and absolute
disappearance of himself and party, in 1848, has deepened, and kept alive
until this day.
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