When forcing their way through the matted growth of scrub, he often threw himself bodily upon it, breaking a path for his weary followers by the mere weight of his body.

It was in a wretched condition that they at last reached Western Port.
8.3.PATRICK LESLIE.
In 1840 Patrick Leslie, who has always been considered the father of settlement on the Darling Downs, started with stock from a New England station, then the most northerly settled district in New South Wales, and formed the first station on the Condamine River, actually before that river had been identified as a tributary of the Darling.

There was a general impression that the Condamine flowed north and east, and finally found its way through the main range to the Pacific.

In 1841, Stuart Russell, who closely followed Leslie as a pioneer, followed the river down for more than a hundred miles to the westward, and in the following year it was traced still further, and the Darling generally accepted as its final destination.
8.4.LUDWIG LEICHHARDT.
[Illustration.

Ludwig Leichhardt.] Leichhardt is the Franklin of Australia, around whose name has ever clung a tantalising veil of mystery and romance.