He successfully conducted an expedition from Moreton Bay to the Port Essington of King--on the northern coast--by which he made known the geographical features of a great part of what is now Queensland, the capital being Brisbane at Moreton Bay.

A settlement had been established at Port Essington by the Government of New South Wales, to which colony the whole territory then belonged.

At this settlement, as being the only point of relief after eighteen months of travel, Leichhardt and his exhausted party arrived.

The settlement was a military and penal one, but was ultimately abandoned.

It is now a cattle station in the northern territory division of South Australia, and belongs to some gentlemen in Adelaide.
Of Leichhardt's sad fate in the interior of Australia no tidings have ever been heard.