Survivor Who Went Native

John King, the first white man to cross the Australian continent and survive, did so only because of the generosity of Aborigines. King was a member of the Burke and Wills expedition, which set out from Melbourne in 1860. After the expedition established a supply camp at Copper’s Creek in South Australia, four men went on northwards and reached the tidal marshes at the edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria. They were Robert Burke, William Wills, King and a man named Charles Gray. But the party ran out of supplies on their return journey and Grey died of starvation before they reached Cooper's Creek. The three exhausted survivors were horrified to discover at the camp a message saying that the support party had given up waiting and gone back South that same morning. Even though the support party had left behind a cache of supplies, the three men were so weak and ill that they could not get far without help. Aborigines had helped the explorers on their outward trip by giving them fish. However, Burke, crazed by hunger, lost his head when they approached again and ordered King to shoot over their heads to drive them away. Burker and Wills later died of starvation. But King used his rifle to shoot birds for the Aborigines and so win their help. A relief party found him, emancipated but alive, six months later.