On this fatal journey, which occurred in 1848, he undertook the too gigantic task of crossing Australia from east to west, that is to say, from Moreton Bay to Swan River.

Even at that period, however, the eastern interior was not all entirely unknown, as Mitchell's Victoria River or Barcoo, and the Cooper's and Eyre's Creeks of Sturt had already been discovered.

The last-named watercourse lay nearly 1000 miles from the eastern coast, in latitude 25 degrees south, and it is reasonable to suppose that to such a point Leichhardt would naturally direct his course--indeed in what was probably his last letter, addressed to a friend, he mentions this watercourse as a desirable point to make for upon his new attempt.

But where his wanderings ended, and where the catastrophe that closed his own and his companions' lives occurred, no tongue can tell.

After he finally left the furthest outlying settlements at the Mount Abundance station, he, like the lost Pleiad, was seen on earth no more.