Burke & Wills 93: Hope ebbs away - Burke and Wills Expedition (sitios de interés)
Descripción del sitio
On June 21 Wills wrote in his diary that "unless relief comes in some form or other I cannot possibly last more than a fortnight. It is a great consolation at least in this position of ours to know that we have done all we could and that our deaths will rather be the result of the mismanagement of others than of any rash acts of our own. Had we been come to grief elsewhere we could only have blamed ourselves, but here we are returned to Cooper Creek, where we had every reason to look for provisions and clothing, and yet we have to die of starvation in spite of the explicit instructions given by Mr Burke “that the Depot party should await our return, and the strong recommendation to the committee that we should be followed up by a party from Menindee.” June 23: "All hands at home. I am so weak as to be incapable of crawling out of the [shelter]. King holds out well but Mr Burke finds himself weaker every day."
June 24: "A fearful night. At about an hour before sunset a southerly gale sprung up and continued throughout the greater portion of the night. King went out for nardu in spite of the wind and came in with a good load, but he himself terribly cut up. He says that he can no longer keep up the work and, as he and Mr Burke are both getting rapidly weaker, we have but a slight chance of anything but starvation unless we can get hold of some Blacks."
June 25: "The cold plays the deuce with us from the small amount of clothing we have. My wardrobe consists of a wide-awake, a merino shirt, a regatta shirt without sleeves, the remains of a pair of flannel trousers, two pairs of socks in rags, and a waistcoat of which I have managed to keep the pockets together."
June 26: "The nardu is beginning to agree better with me, but without some change I see little chance for any of us."
