In a week Lewis returned, having reached a tributary of the river; and on the 5th of December the whole party arrived at the rocky creek that he had found.
They now proceeded slowly down the Oakover, but came across no sign of occupation.

The indefatigable Lewis had therefore again to go ahead for help whilst the others waited for him, living on the flesh of the last camel.

He had 170 miles to journey over before he reached the cattle station belonging to Grant, Harper, and Anderson, where he was immediately supplied with horses and provisions to take back to the starving men.
It was on the 29th of December as Warburton was lying in the shade thinking moodily that the station must have been abandoned, and that Lewis had surely been compelled to push on to Roebourne, when the black boy from a tree-top gave a cheerful signal.

Starting to their feet, the astonished men found the pack-horses and the relief party almost in their camp.
Of the seventeen camels with which they had started, the two that Lewis had taken on to the station were the only survivors; and all their equipment had been abandoned piecemeal in the desert.
15.4.WILLIAM CHRISTIE GOSSE.
[Illustration.

William Christie Gosse, Deputy Surveyor-General of South Australia.] On the 23rd of April, about a week after the departure of Warburton, William Christie Gosse, Deputy Surveyor-General of South Australia, also left Alice Springs on an exploring expedition, having been appointed by the South Australian Government to take charge of the Central and Western Exploring Expedition.