Burke & Wills 101: Howitt finds King - Burke and Wills Expedition (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
On September 15 the relief party's surveyor, Edwin Welch, spotted across the creek a group of Aborigines shouting and gesticulating. They scattered as he approached, leaving behind a man covered in scarecrow rags and part of a hat. Welch didn't immediately recognise the figure as being human. "Before I could pull up I passed it," he wrote later, "and as I passed, it tottered, threw up its hands in an attitude of prayer, and fell on the sand. When I turned back the figure had partly risen. Hastily dismounting I was soon beside it excitedly asking, 'Who in the name of wonder are you?''I am King, sir.'
For a moment I did not grasp the thought that the object of our search was attained, King being one of the undistinguished members of the party. 'King,' I replied.
'Yes,' he said. 'The last man of the Exploring Expedition.'
'What, Burke's?'
'Yes,' he said.
'Where is he – and Wills?'
'Dead, both dead long ago' and he fell to the ground."
The Yandruwandha had taken care of King and in return he shot crows for them and administered first aid. Howitt appeared on the scene. "I found King sitting in a hut which the natives had made for him. He presented a melancholy appearance – wasted to a shadow, and hardly to be distinguished as a civilised being but by the remnants of clothes upon him. He seemed exceedingly weak, and I found it occasionally difficult to follow what he said. The natives were all gathered round, seated on the ground, looking with a most gratified and delighted expression."
Howitt pitched camp, expecting to remain 10 days while King recuperated enough for the journey home. A marker today indicates the spot where King was found.
