WEBVTT - The Lovestruck Explorer's Deadly Guessing Game 0:00:15.410 --> 0:00:25.850 Pushkin. This cautionary tale was inspired by a suggestion from 0:00:25.930 --> 0:00:29.290 a loyal listener. Thank you, JP, I hope you enjoy 0:00:29.330 --> 0:00:39.170 the episode. Brah, Robert O'Hara Burke calls out the name 0:00:39.210 --> 0:00:41.610 of the man he'd left in charge of the camp 0:00:41.930 --> 0:00:43.890 at Cooper's Creek, Coo. 0:00:45.250 --> 0:00:45.690 Braha. 0:00:47.850 --> 0:00:53.170 Dusk is falling, Burke and his two surviving colleagues recognize 0:00:53.170 --> 0:00:58.570 their surroundings. The camp is close. They've traveled thirty miles 0:00:58.610 --> 0:01:02.170 that day, clinging wearily to the backs of their two 0:01:02.330 --> 0:01:05.930 surviving camels, who are just as exhausted as they are. 0:01:07.370 --> 0:01:08.930 Brah. 0:01:09.450 --> 0:01:13.170 It's been over four months since they saw Braha and 0:01:13.210 --> 0:01:16.690 the other men they left at Cooper's Creek. In that time, 0:01:16.810 --> 0:01:21.330 they've trekked two thousand miles to the northern coast of 0:01:21.370 --> 0:01:26.450 Australia and back again. They're the first white men ever 0:01:26.570 --> 0:01:31.090 to cross the country. Glory and fame await when they 0:01:31.090 --> 0:01:34.730 get back to Melbourne, still nearly another thousand miles away, 0:01:35.610 --> 0:01:40.650 but now they'll have support, more men, fresh camels and 0:01:40.770 --> 0:01:46.610 horses and food and goodness. Been on half rations for weeks, 0:01:48.250 --> 0:01:50.090 But where's Braha? 0:01:51.650 --> 0:01:53.490 Pattern mcdonna. 0:01:55.890 --> 0:02:01.650 No response from anyone, Admittedly, Burke had assured them he'd 0:02:01.650 --> 0:02:04.330 be back at the camp in three months, not four. 0:02:05.450 --> 0:02:08.890 They might by now have assumed he was lost or 0:02:08.890 --> 0:02:12.490 had taken a different route back to Melbourne, but he'd 0:02:12.490 --> 0:02:14.770 asked them to stay at Cooper's Creek for as long 0:02:14.810 --> 0:02:18.890 as their supplies lasted, and their supplies should have been 0:02:18.890 --> 0:02:19.970 replenished long ago. 0:02:21.450 --> 0:02:24.850 Braha pattern mcdonna. 0:02:26.530 --> 0:02:30.570 They can't be far away. They've probably just gone to 0:02:30.730 --> 0:02:36.130 water the camels and the horses. They'll be back any moment. Then, 0:02:36.770 --> 0:02:41.170 Burke's second in command sees the dates carved into the 0:02:41.210 --> 0:02:51.810 Coolibar tree December six sixty April twenty one sixty one. 0:02:52.530 --> 0:02:56.490 The sixth of December eighteen sixty That was when they 0:02:56.650 --> 0:03:00.650 established this camp, four and a half months ago. So 0:03:01.130 --> 0:03:06.490 the other date must be when Braha abandoned the camp, 0:03:07.890 --> 0:03:12.530 the twenty first of eight April eighteen sixty one. That's today. 0:03:13.690 --> 0:03:21.690 They abandoned the camp today, Braha. The ashes in the 0:03:21.690 --> 0:03:28.330 campfire are still worn. Other letters carved into the tree 0:03:28.610 --> 0:03:37.450 DG three ft NW dig three feet to the northwest. 0:03:38.770 --> 0:03:44.530 They dig loosely buried under camel doong and dirt is 0:03:44.570 --> 0:03:48.810 a trunk. In the trunk is a bottle, and in 0:03:48.890 --> 0:03:53.290 the bottle a note. It's signed by William. 0:03:52.970 --> 0:03:58.850 Braha Depot Cooper's Creek, twenty first of April eighteen sixty one. 0:04:00.250 --> 0:04:03.610 The depot party leaves this camp today. 0:04:04.650 --> 0:04:06.930 But why? For medical attention? 0:04:07.010 --> 0:04:12.050 It seems Pattern is unable to walk, his leg has 0:04:12.170 --> 0:04:13.570 been severely hurt. 0:04:14.690 --> 0:04:16.210 But where are the others? 0:04:17.050 --> 0:04:20.610 Where's the third group of Burke's expedition, the ones he 0:04:20.730 --> 0:04:24.170 left at the last outpost of civilization on the Darling River, 0:04:24.890 --> 0:04:27.090 who are going to follow up to Cooper's Creek with 0:04:27.210 --> 0:04:29.890 all the other supplies? Where are they? 0:04:30.650 --> 0:04:33.530 No person has been up here from the Darling. 0:04:34.770 --> 0:04:39.450 So that depot party's supplies haven't been replenished, and Brajo 0:04:39.490 --> 0:04:41.570 will have had to take much of what remained for 0:04:41.650 --> 0:04:46.730 his journey back. Burke and his two companions look again 0:04:46.850 --> 0:04:52.570 in the buried chest. They've been left some flour, sugar, tea, 0:04:52.770 --> 0:04:59.090 and dried meat. Not much, not enough, but at least 0:04:59.170 --> 0:05:05.170 they can eat Tonight. They eat, they rest, they discuss 0:05:05.250 --> 0:05:11.570 their predicament, and then they make a catastrophically bad decision. 0:05:13.930 --> 0:05:44.450 I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. How 0:05:44.690 --> 0:05:45.970 the calm. 0:05:45.450 --> 0:05:50.130 Stands fall like shot himself. 0:05:54.650 --> 0:05:58.370 Robert O'Hara Burke sits in the front row of the theater. 0:05:59.170 --> 0:06:02.370 He was there last night. He'll be there tomorrow night too. 0:06:03.650 --> 0:06:07.370 Burke is Irish, a former soldier. Seven years ago he 0:06:07.410 --> 0:06:11.690 moved to the newly established British Crown Colony of Victoria, 0:06:12.490 --> 0:06:17.770 Australia wasn't yet a country with states. Burke became superintendent 0:06:17.850 --> 0:06:21.570 of police in a fast growing gold rush town seventy 0:06:21.650 --> 0:06:26.650 miles from Victoria's capital, Melbourne. He spends his time chasing 0:06:26.730 --> 0:06:30.130 horse thieves or quelling trouble from workers on the railway 0:06:30.170 --> 0:06:34.770 who had disgruntled with their boss. What sort of man 0:06:35.050 --> 0:06:39.770 was Robert O'Hara Burke, Apart from, as it seemed, a 0:06:39.810 --> 0:06:45.970 theater lover, he was untidy, says one account. He dressed 0:06:46.010 --> 0:06:50.690 like a peasant and dribbled saliva down his bushy black beard. 0:06:51.530 --> 0:06:54.610 But he came from a well connected family. He spoke 0:06:54.810 --> 0:06:58.330 several languages, and he was quite at ease in the 0:06:58.370 --> 0:07:03.010 poshest social circles the young colony had to offer. He 0:07:03.090 --> 0:07:07.890 was a daredevil eccentric. You might find him galloping his 0:07:08.010 --> 0:07:12.930 horse madly through swamps and forests, or reading police reports 0:07:12.970 --> 0:07:16.530 in a bathtub in his yard, wearing nothing but his helmet. 0:07:18.090 --> 0:07:22.370 He bore grudges. Burke fell out with a magistrate whose 0:07:22.410 --> 0:07:26.450 particular bugbear happened to be people swinging on his front gate. 0:07:27.490 --> 0:07:31.970 Burke would ride thirty miles just to swing on that gate. 0:07:40.650 --> 0:07:46.570 And a theater lover, not exactly Burke had fallen head 0:07:46.570 --> 0:07:51.290 over heels for a young actress. She sang and starred 0:07:51.290 --> 0:07:56.610 in burlesques and pantomimes, roles like Cupid, the Mischievous God 0:07:56.650 --> 0:08:01.210 of Love. When she played in nearby towns, Burke always 0:08:01.290 --> 0:08:05.050 found an excuse to gallop over. He claimed there was 0:08:05.090 --> 0:08:08.850 a promising lead on a gang of horse thieves, when 0:08:09.330 --> 0:08:13.730 he really just wanted an excuse to watch Julia Matthews. 0:08:14.330 --> 0:08:16.370 I don't think I'm ugly. 0:08:17.130 --> 0:08:18.770 I'm only just twenty. 0:08:19.610 --> 0:08:23.050 I know I shouldn't make a most excellent wife. 0:08:23.970 --> 0:08:29.250 There girls all around me have lovers in plenty, but 0:08:29.410 --> 0:08:35.210 I'm not a sweetheart can get for my life. 0:08:35.530 --> 0:08:40.290 Julia was not, in fact, only just twenty. She was 0:08:40.330 --> 0:08:45.450 still a teenager. Burke was pushing forty. Julia must have 0:08:45.490 --> 0:08:49.930 been disconcerted that a man twice her age was stalking 0:08:49.970 --> 0:08:53.890 her from town to town, gazing adoringly up from a 0:08:54.010 --> 0:09:02.010 front row seat, dribbling saliva. Burke proposed marriage. Julia said no, 0:09:02.730 --> 0:09:06.410 but Burke wasn't discouraged. He bought a piano and hired 0:09:06.410 --> 0:09:11.850 a teacher to teach him the Songsia sang hour after hour. 0:09:11.970 --> 0:09:17.250 He practiced with blankets draped around the piano so he 0:09:17.290 --> 0:09:27.370 didn't wake the neighbour's baby. In Melbourne, meanwhile, the freshly 0:09:27.450 --> 0:09:33.090 minted Royal Society of Victoria was planning an expedition from 0:09:33.130 --> 0:09:36.890 their city in the south to the northern coast. It 0:09:37.010 --> 0:09:41.090 had never been done before. Ships had sailed round Australia 0:09:41.530 --> 0:09:46.050 and explorers from various coastal cities were venturing further inland, 0:09:47.010 --> 0:09:51.650 but the center on a map remained a ghastly blank. 0:09:52.530 --> 0:09:57.690 What was there just desert? Or was there, as some thought, 0:09:58.130 --> 0:10:01.450 an inland sea. Could they map a route for a 0:10:01.490 --> 0:10:05.690 telegraph wire to speed up communication with Europe. Might they 0:10:05.730 --> 0:10:08.490 find land that was good for pasture. 0:10:08.650 --> 0:10:10.930 Or more gold? 0:10:13.570 --> 0:10:16.570 The society had raised the money for the expedition, but 0:10:16.770 --> 0:10:20.610 couldn't agree on who should lead it. Ideally they'd hire 0:10:20.690 --> 0:10:25.250 an experienced explorer, but no one was available, or no 0:10:25.330 --> 0:10:30.050 one from Victoria. The experienced explorers were all from other 0:10:30.170 --> 0:10:35.930 British colonies. Elsewhere in Australia, rivalry was strong. It was 0:10:35.970 --> 0:10:39.210 a matter of pride to the Royal Society of Victoria 0:10:39.290 --> 0:10:43.690 that someone from Victoria should cross the country first. They 0:10:43.770 --> 0:10:49.890 advertised the post and got some unconvincing applicants. One proposed 0:10:49.890 --> 0:10:53.730 to solve the problem of crossing the desert by stretching 0:10:53.770 --> 0:10:57.650 out a very long hose pipe from the last known river. 0:10:59.370 --> 0:11:03.450 Then a major funder of the project, a railway magnet, 0:11:04.050 --> 0:11:10.050 suggested someone had got to know Irish former office now 0:11:10.090 --> 0:11:15.450 a police chief, very effective at quelling trouble from disgruntled workers, 0:11:16.250 --> 0:11:22.370 A manly character with determined energy. Eccentric, yes, but from 0:11:22.410 --> 0:11:30.610 a very good family, Robert O'Hara Burke. Some who knew 0:11:30.690 --> 0:11:34.610 Burke were astonished at the idea of him crossing Australia. 0:11:35.090 --> 0:11:37.810 He was the worst bushman I ever met, said one. 0:11:38.490 --> 0:11:41.850 Another added he could not tell the Norse from the 0:11:41.890 --> 0:11:47.250 South in broad daylight. Burke himself needed no persuading. 0:11:48.290 --> 0:11:52.130 If I come out successful, I have no doubt but 0:11:52.210 --> 0:11:56.810 that Julia will accept my offer of marriage. 0:11:57.490 --> 0:12:02.410 In August eighteen sixty the expedition prepared for departure in 0:12:02.490 --> 0:12:07.290 a park in Melbourne. It consisted of nineteen men, twenty 0:12:07.290 --> 0:12:14.050 three horses, seven camels and twenty one tons of baggage. 0:12:14.930 --> 0:12:19.370 Burke watched it all being piled on wagons and animal's 0:12:19.490 --> 0:12:24.730 backs with mounting alarm. He had somehow lost control of 0:12:24.770 --> 0:12:25.850 what was being packed. 0:12:27.170 --> 0:12:29.090 What are we going to do with all this? 0:12:30.610 --> 0:12:30.930 Who? 0:12:30.970 --> 0:12:35.090 For instance, decided they'd need twelve sets of dan draft 0:12:35.170 --> 0:12:39.650 brushes in the outback. They were taking an oak dining 0:12:39.730 --> 0:12:44.930 table and a gong from China, and a boat. A 0:12:44.930 --> 0:12:48.770 boat on wheels, so it was also a wagon, but 0:12:48.890 --> 0:12:52.690 a boat. Nonetheless, they might need one if they encountered 0:12:52.730 --> 0:12:57.690 an inland sea. Before they set off, Burke had one 0:12:57.730 --> 0:13:02.770 thing he needed to do. It had a photograph taken 0:13:03.010 --> 0:13:06.810 and made into a miniature portrait, which he now placed 0:13:06.930 --> 0:13:11.530 in a locket. He went to see Julia Matthews and 0:13:11.610 --> 0:13:16.930 again asked her to marry him. This time, the teenage 0:13:17.010 --> 0:13:21.690 actress didn't reject the proposal out of hand. Burke might 0:13:21.810 --> 0:13:25.810 be twenty one years her senior, but if he succeeded, 0:13:26.410 --> 0:13:30.410 he'd be the most famous man in the land. Wise, 0:13:30.530 --> 0:13:35.650 perhaps to keep her options open, Julia said she'd consider 0:13:35.730 --> 0:13:41.450 his proposal on his return. For now, she accepted the 0:13:41.490 --> 0:13:59.090 locket cautionary tales, will be back after the break. Robert 0:13:59.250 --> 0:14:03.970 O'Hara Burke was trying to cross Australia from Melbourne, Victoria 0:14:04.130 --> 0:14:08.570 in the south to the unmapped north. The journey hit 0:14:08.690 --> 0:14:12.810 planned had two stopping off points. About a quarterway up. 0:14:13.090 --> 0:14:16.530 A few hundred miles north of Melbourne was the last 0:14:16.730 --> 0:14:20.850 outpost of civilization, a tiny settlement on the Darling River, 0:14:21.210 --> 0:14:25.330 a few houses, a pub, and general store. From there, 0:14:25.730 --> 0:14:28.730 Burke would press on a few hundred miles more to 0:14:28.850 --> 0:14:33.850 Cooper's Creek, almost halfway up the country, the furthest point 0:14:33.970 --> 0:14:38.690 mapped by any explorer. At Cooper's Creek, he'd establish a 0:14:38.730 --> 0:14:42.490 camp and a depot, he'd secure his lines of communication 0:14:43.130 --> 0:14:46.010 back to the outpost on the Darling, and then he'd 0:14:46.090 --> 0:14:52.210 set forth into uncharted territory, a thousand or so miles 0:14:52.250 --> 0:14:56.090 remaining to a gulf in the north. That was the plan, anyway, 0:14:56.850 --> 0:15:00.930 But then they'd accumulated twenty one tons of baggage. 0:15:02.050 --> 0:15:03.850 What are we going to do with all this? 0:15:05.530 --> 0:15:10.810 As it happened, Burke's despairing question had a sensible answer. 0:15:11.130 --> 0:15:13.650 For the first leg of the journey, at least that 0:15:13.930 --> 0:15:18.410 outpost on the Darling River was served by a paddle steamer. 0:15:19.130 --> 0:15:21.770 Burke could have shipped most of his supplies up the 0:15:21.850 --> 0:15:25.770 river and traveled light with the horses and camels that 0:15:25.890 --> 0:15:28.770 arrived fresh and ready for the push to Cooper's Creek. 0:15:29.650 --> 0:15:35.890 That would be sensible. Why not do that? Alas Burke 0:15:35.970 --> 0:15:40.290 had fallen out with the owner of the steamboat company, 0:15:40.370 --> 0:15:46.250 he insisted on hauling everything over land instead. That was 0:15:46.290 --> 0:15:50.890 his first catastrophic decision, if you don't count taking the 0:15:50.970 --> 0:15:54.890 job in the first place. The journey from Melbourne to 0:15:54.930 --> 0:15:58.170 the Darling could be done in ten days by a 0:15:58.210 --> 0:16:04.250 messenger on horseback. It took Burke's expedition fifty six days. 0:16:05.490 --> 0:16:08.570 In that time. Of the nineteen men who had set out, 0:16:09.090 --> 0:16:13.530 Burke had lost eleven, either he fired them or argued 0:16:13.570 --> 0:16:17.290 with them till they quit. He hired five more along 0:16:17.290 --> 0:16:21.730 the way and lost three of them. Two He hired 0:16:21.770 --> 0:16:25.290 more wagons to help with the baggage. That ruinous expense 0:16:26.170 --> 0:16:30.930 he kept breaking down. As Burke complained in messages to Melbourne. 0:16:31.290 --> 0:16:33.010 The roads are very bad. 0:16:36.050 --> 0:16:39.570 He wrote so many checks for wagon repairs. The Royal 0:16:39.610 --> 0:16:44.010 Society of Victoria's bank account round dry, and the checks 0:16:44.090 --> 0:16:49.050 began to bounce. Burke finally decided he'd have to dump 0:16:49.090 --> 0:16:53.770 some supplies. In a small town, he held a public auction. 0:16:54.690 --> 0:16:57.250 Among the stuff he got rid of was their lime juice, 0:16:57.850 --> 0:17:01.850 which helps prevent scurvy. As we heard about in another 0:17:02.090 --> 0:17:08.130 cautionary tale, when limeers get scurvy, scurvy creeps up on 0:17:08.250 --> 0:17:12.730 you with lack of vitaminc. It starts with aching gums, 0:17:12.890 --> 0:17:18.370 then slowly rots your body. Burke really shouldn't have ditched 0:17:18.370 --> 0:17:23.170 the lime juice. As the expedition stutted on, news reached 0:17:23.210 --> 0:17:27.410 Melbourne that another explorer from another Crown colony was also 0:17:27.450 --> 0:17:30.210 setting off with the aim of crossing the country first. 0:17:31.250 --> 0:17:35.970 Members of the Royal Society of Victoria's Exploration Committee hen 0:17:36.290 --> 0:17:37.610 anxious letters. 0:17:38.210 --> 0:17:42.730 My dearest Burke, well know to a certain extent the erase, 0:17:43.530 --> 0:17:46.570 I know how exciting this must be to you. The 0:17:46.650 --> 0:17:52.010 honor of Victoria is end your hands. Oh and the 0:17:52.090 --> 0:17:57.130 committee were rather alarmed that, finding the expense greater than 0:17:57.170 --> 0:17:58.930 they anticipated. 0:18:00.650 --> 0:18:05.010 Burke tried a shortcut to make up time. The wagons 0:18:05.050 --> 0:18:07.850 sank so deep in sand they had to be dug 0:18:07.890 --> 0:18:13.330 out with shovels. The horses got so exhausted they simply stopped. 0:18:15.050 --> 0:18:19.130 After fifty six days, Burke and what remained of his 0:18:19.170 --> 0:18:24.330 expedition staggered towards the handful of houses on the Darling River. 0:18:25.250 --> 0:18:28.770 They had completed barely a quarter of their outward journey, 0:18:29.490 --> 0:18:32.210 and it should have been the easiest part through land 0:18:32.290 --> 0:18:37.010 that was already colonized. As they arrived, they watched the 0:18:37.130 --> 0:18:41.770 parbon General's store unload a new shipment of stock from 0:18:41.770 --> 0:18:47.890 a paddle steamer. At the outpost on the Darling River. 0:18:48.450 --> 0:18:53.010 Burke assessed his options. It fired his second in command, 0:18:53.090 --> 0:18:56.810 so he needed to promote someone. He chose an earnest 0:18:56.850 --> 0:19:02.170 young Englishman called William Wills. Wills's mum hadn't wanted him 0:19:02.170 --> 0:19:05.650 to go on this expedition, but, as he wrote. 0:19:05.330 --> 0:19:09.010 Her, were we born to be locked up in comfortable rooms, 0:19:09.330 --> 0:19:11.610 never to incur the hazard of mishap. 0:19:13.290 --> 0:19:17.770 Unlike Burke, Wills was a scientist, a trained surveyor. It 0:19:17.890 --> 0:19:20.650 was his job to find their way with a compass 0:19:21.130 --> 0:19:24.250 and by observing the stars at night, and to keep 0:19:24.370 --> 0:19:28.890 meteorological observations. Wills had quite enjoyed the journey so far. 0:19:29.850 --> 0:19:32.730 Riding on the camels is much more pleasant than I anticipated. 0:19:33.410 --> 0:19:35.770 I sit on the back portion behind the hump, and 0:19:35.850 --> 0:19:38.650 packed the instruments in front. I can thus ride on, 0:19:39.210 --> 0:19:43.730 keeping my journal and making calculations. 0:19:44.770 --> 0:19:48.530 By now it was late in spring. The summer heat 0:19:48.610 --> 0:19:52.450 would soon make it dangerous to travel further north. It 0:19:52.530 --> 0:19:55.210 would be sensible to wait a few months and resume 0:19:55.290 --> 0:20:00.650 their travels in autumn. Sensible, but Burke was in a race. 0:20:01.850 --> 0:20:05.170 He decided to split the party up. He'd take the 0:20:05.170 --> 0:20:08.570 fittest men, horses and camels, and a few months worth 0:20:08.570 --> 0:20:13.210 of food and press on to Cooper's Creek in charge 0:20:13.210 --> 0:20:16.930 of the others. He left a man he'd met in 0:20:17.050 --> 0:20:21.370 the pub who'd managed a local sheep station and seemed 0:20:21.370 --> 0:20:24.410 to know what he was doing. Burke sent a letter 0:20:24.450 --> 0:20:25.730 to Melbourne to explain. 0:20:26.930 --> 0:20:30.330 I informed him that I should consider him third officer 0:20:30.370 --> 0:20:33.810 of the expedition, subject to the approval of the committee. 0:20:34.290 --> 0:20:36.690 In the meantime, I have instructed him to follow me 0:20:36.770 --> 0:20:39.330 up with the remainder of the camels to Cooper's Creek. 0:20:41.570 --> 0:20:44.450 But was the man from the pub expected to wait 0:20:44.450 --> 0:20:48.250 for the committee's approval before he followed up to Cooper's Creek. 0:20:49.250 --> 0:21:00.410 Burke's instructions alas were unclear. When I've talked about civilization, 0:21:01.250 --> 0:21:05.410 I've been using quote marks on the colonial maps. The 0:21:05.450 --> 0:21:08.890 center of Australia might have looked like a ghastly blank, 0:21:09.690 --> 0:21:12.970 but it was of course home to ancient civilizations of 0:21:13.010 --> 0:21:19.010 its own. Near Cooper's Creek lived four main groups of 0:21:19.130 --> 0:21:22.970 Aboriginal people. They moved around to find food and water, 0:21:23.130 --> 0:21:26.250 but they knew whose land was whose, and when you 0:21:26.370 --> 0:21:30.250 visited others land there were conventions to follow, much as 0:21:30.650 --> 0:21:33.090 I might knock on your door and wait to be 0:21:33.170 --> 0:21:38.570 invited in Burke and Wills neither knew nor cared about 0:21:38.610 --> 0:21:41.970 these conventions. They simply marched straight up to the watering 0:21:42.010 --> 0:21:46.410 holes with their horses and camels. The Aboriginal people didn't 0:21:46.450 --> 0:21:50.010 know what to make of these white fellers. They tried 0:21:50.050 --> 0:21:52.450 to be friendly. Wills was having none of it. 0:21:53.050 --> 0:21:55.610 A large tribe of blacks came pestering us to go 0:21:55.690 --> 0:21:58.410 to their camp and have a dance, which we declined. 0:21:59.130 --> 0:22:01.970 They were very troublesome, and nothing but the threat to 0:22:02.090 --> 0:22:05.690 shoot will keep them away. 0:22:06.210 --> 0:22:11.410 The desert heat was stifling. Will's thermometer showed one hundred 0:22:11.450 --> 0:22:16.010 and nine, but they found Cooper's Creek to be teeming 0:22:16.130 --> 0:22:22.250 with life, fish and birds and trees, though also rats 0:22:22.250 --> 0:22:27.410 and flies and mosquitoes. On the sixth of December eighteen 0:22:27.490 --> 0:22:31.810 sixty they set up their camp like the jolly Swagman 0:22:31.970 --> 0:22:37.210 of Song, under the shade of a kolibar tree. Remember 0:22:37.250 --> 0:22:41.530 what Burke was supposed to do at Cooper's Creek, establish 0:22:41.730 --> 0:22:45.370 a depot, secure his lines of communication back to that 0:22:45.530 --> 0:22:52.170 outpost on the Darling, and only then explore the uncharted 0:22:52.290 --> 0:22:56.410 territory to the north. It would have been sensible to 0:22:56.450 --> 0:22:59.450 wait for the man from the pub to arrive with 0:22:59.530 --> 0:23:03.570 the rest of the supplies, but Burke was sure he'd 0:23:03.570 --> 0:23:07.610 be along soon, and anyway, there was a race on 0:23:09.610 --> 0:23:13.650 split his party again. He'd push for the northern coast. 0:23:13.810 --> 0:23:17.410 With Wills and two others in charge of the depot, 0:23:17.730 --> 0:23:21.810 he left a quiet but capable young German, William Braha. 0:23:22.810 --> 0:23:26.690 Burke told Braha they'd be back in three months. He 0:23:26.890 --> 0:23:30.010 was taking only three months worth of food, after all, 0:23:31.330 --> 0:23:35.410 And if Burke wasn't back in three months, well, he 0:23:35.490 --> 0:23:38.850 might have found a route to another settlement in another colony. 0:23:39.770 --> 0:23:42.130 That had also been vague talk of a ship being 0:23:42.170 --> 0:23:44.050 sent to meet him at the Gulf in the north 0:23:44.090 --> 0:23:47.210 he hoped to reach, but the man from the pub 0:23:47.410 --> 0:23:51.130 would have come with more supplies by then, so Braha 0:23:51.210 --> 0:23:54.970 could stay at Cooper's Creek anyway, whatever, it'd be fine. 0:23:55.210 --> 0:23:57.890 You must not fret. I shall be back in a 0:23:57.890 --> 0:23:58.530 short time. 0:24:00.850 --> 0:24:04.050 Caution, retales will also be back in a short time. 0:24:12.290 --> 0:24:17.290 In his nineteen sixty book The Strategy of Conflict, the game, 0:24:17.370 --> 0:24:21.250 theorist Thomas Shelling asks us to imagine a couple who 0:24:21.330 --> 0:24:25.890 lose each other in a department store. It's nineteen sixty, 0:24:25.970 --> 0:24:29.890 so they can't just call. But the chances are good, 0:24:30.330 --> 0:24:34.410 says Shelling, that they'll find each other. They'll each think 0:24:34.490 --> 0:24:37.970 of some obvious place to meet that will obviously be 0:24:38.250 --> 0:24:43.170 obvious to the other. Shelling calls this a coordination game. 0:24:43.850 --> 0:24:48.330 Can you coordinate if you can't communicate? You win the 0:24:48.370 --> 0:24:51.530 game if you give the same answer as the other player. 0:24:52.690 --> 0:24:55.850 The question, he says, is not what would I do 0:24:55.970 --> 0:24:58.810 if I were she? But what would I do if 0:24:58.850 --> 0:25:01.050 I were she? Wondering what she would do if she 0:25:01.090 --> 0:25:03.330 were I wondering what I would do if I were she. 0:25:04.650 --> 0:25:07.610 The trick is to look for what Shelling calls a 0:25:07.770 --> 0:25:12.210 focal point in the situation. Different places in the department 0:25:12.290 --> 0:25:17.890 store will seem obvious to different couples, but we can 0:25:17.930 --> 0:25:22.330 play coordination games with strangers too. Shelling asks people to 0:25:22.370 --> 0:25:25.530 imagine they've been told to meet someone in New York, 0:25:25.970 --> 0:25:30.490 but not a time or location. Where might they try 0:25:31.050 --> 0:25:34.850 In an age when most people arrived by train, many 0:25:34.930 --> 0:25:39.210 gave Shelling the same answer by the famous clock at 0:25:39.250 --> 0:25:45.250 Grand Central Terminal at noon. How do you play the 0:25:45.290 --> 0:25:51.650 coordination game? Logic helps, says Shelling, but usually not until 0:25:51.810 --> 0:25:56.450 imagination has selected some clue to work on from among 0:25:56.530 --> 0:26:00.930 the concrete details of the situation. The problem comes when 0:26:00.970 --> 0:26:04.610 you're so confident in your own answer you don't bother 0:26:04.730 --> 0:26:12.810 to look for a backup plan. In Cooper's Creek in 0:26:12.890 --> 0:26:18.770 April eighteen sixty one, William Braher wonders how long it's 0:26:18.850 --> 0:26:22.890 reasonable to keep waiting for Burke Wills and their two companions. 0:26:23.570 --> 0:26:27.450 They have been gone for over four months. Maybe they're dead, 0:26:28.450 --> 0:26:31.330 maybe they're on a ship back to Melbourne. He has 0:26:31.370 --> 0:26:34.090 no way to communicate with them. The man from the 0:26:34.130 --> 0:26:38.850 pub never arrived. Pattens hurt his leg and can't walk, 0:26:39.690 --> 0:26:44.490 but more worryingly, his gums are bleeding too. Wait much 0:26:44.570 --> 0:26:48.090 longer and they risk never making it back to civilization 0:26:48.370 --> 0:26:52.530 at all. They decide to leave on the morning of 0:26:52.610 --> 0:26:57.090 April or twenty first. Braha writes a letter just in 0:26:57.130 --> 0:27:00.290 case Burke eventually makes it back. He puts the letter 0:27:00.290 --> 0:27:03.370 in a bottle, and the bottle in a chest with 0:27:03.410 --> 0:27:07.370 as much food as he can spare. He buries the chest. 0:27:09.090 --> 0:27:12.330 Now will Burke no, it's there? The focal point for 0:27:12.410 --> 0:27:17.650 coordination seems obvious, the coolibar tree in the shade of 0:27:17.690 --> 0:27:23.010 which they made their camp. He carves instructions into the tree, 0:27:23.890 --> 0:27:29.850 dig three feet northwest. He adds the date and abandons 0:27:29.890 --> 0:27:38.290 the camp. That evening, Burke, Wills, and one more man, 0:27:38.410 --> 0:27:43.330 John King, stagger into the camp. The fourth man died, 0:27:44.290 --> 0:27:47.250 and the three were so weak it took a whole 0:27:47.450 --> 0:27:52.050 day to dig his grave. If they hadn't buried him 0:27:52.210 --> 0:27:55.810 that had been back at Cooper's Creek a day earlier. 0:27:56.810 --> 0:28:01.130 They try not to think about that. Burke, Wills, and 0:28:01.250 --> 0:28:05.930 King assess their options. Should they follow Braha back along 0:28:05.970 --> 0:28:10.050 the track towards the outpost on the Darling River. It's 0:28:10.250 --> 0:28:13.850 hundreds of miles but never make it. But if a 0:28:13.890 --> 0:28:18.330 search party comes, it would be from that direction. Burke 0:28:18.370 --> 0:28:22.930 has another idea. The incomplete maps of Australia show another 0:28:23.210 --> 0:28:27.290 tiny outpost only one hundred and fifty miles away along 0:28:27.450 --> 0:28:33.530 Cooper's Creek. It's called Mount Hopeless. The food from the 0:28:33.650 --> 0:28:38.610 chest might just be enough for that shorter journey. Burke 0:28:38.850 --> 0:28:41.450 writes a letter outlining his plans. 0:28:42.530 --> 0:28:48.770 We proceed on tomorrow slowly down the creek towards Mount Hopeless. 0:28:49.810 --> 0:28:55.290 We are very weak, we have all suffered much from hunger. 0:28:56.490 --> 0:29:02.730 Greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone, we shall 0:29:02.770 --> 0:29:06.370 move very slowly down the creek. 0:29:07.890 --> 0:29:10.530 He puts the letter in a box, puts the bottle 0:29:10.570 --> 0:29:13.610 in the chest, and buries it in the same place. 0:29:15.210 --> 0:29:18.930 The three men briefly discuss whether they should also add 0:29:18.930 --> 0:29:22.730 a mark to the tree. They decide not to bother. 0:29:23.570 --> 0:29:26.050 As King later explained. 0:29:26.410 --> 0:29:28.850 We thought the word deg would answer our purpose as 0:29:28.890 --> 0:29:29.530 well as ours. 0:29:31.410 --> 0:29:35.210 Obviously, if a search party came to the camp, let's 0:29:35.210 --> 0:29:40.130 see the word dig and dig up the chest, wouldn't they? Burke, 0:29:40.370 --> 0:29:44.090 Wills and King spread dung over the chest so it 0:29:44.090 --> 0:29:47.090 doesn't look like the ground has been disturbed. They don't 0:29:47.130 --> 0:29:50.810 want the locals to steal it. They leave the abandoned 0:29:50.850 --> 0:29:58.770 camp looking almost exactly as they found it. Just ninety 0:29:58.810 --> 0:30:03.290 miles south of Cooper's Creek, William Braher bumps into the 0:30:03.290 --> 0:30:07.130 man from the pub, William Wright. So he is making 0:30:07.170 --> 0:30:11.090 his way from the Darling to Cooper's Creek, just months 0:30:11.170 --> 0:30:17.810 later than expected. Wright's instructions remember were unclear. He'd explained 0:30:17.850 --> 0:30:20.530 to Braha that he had assumed he should wait for 0:30:20.570 --> 0:30:25.810 the Royal Society of Victoria to approve his appointment. Burke's 0:30:25.930 --> 0:30:28.810 checks had been bouncing. He didn't want to set off 0:30:28.890 --> 0:30:33.650 until he got explicit assurance that he'd be paid in Melbourne. 0:30:33.690 --> 0:30:37.210 The Society's committee assumed there was no rush to confirm 0:30:37.290 --> 0:30:41.730 Right's appointment because he would have set off already. When 0:30:41.890 --> 0:30:45.570 Wright eventually did set off, his journey was slow because 0:30:45.610 --> 0:30:50.770 some of his men were suffering from scurvy. Braha and 0:30:50.850 --> 0:30:54.290 Wright agreed there was no longer any point in lugging 0:30:54.330 --> 0:30:57.890 the rest of the supplies to Cooper's Creek. They should 0:30:58.010 --> 0:31:02.130 all now return to the Darling. But they shared a 0:31:02.250 --> 0:31:07.250 nagging worry. What if Burke had made it back. The 0:31:07.290 --> 0:31:10.890 ill men could use a few days rest. Braha and 0:31:11.010 --> 0:31:15.330 Right decided to ride together quickly back to Cooper's Creek. 0:31:16.370 --> 0:31:16.970 Just to check. 0:31:21.730 --> 0:31:26.810 At Cooper's Creek. Braha and Right see no sign that 0:31:26.850 --> 0:31:31.010 Burke's been there. The camp looks just like we left it. 0:31:31.530 --> 0:31:36.410 Braha tells Right. They don't bother to dig up the chest. Obviously, 0:31:36.490 --> 0:31:39.490