Speaker 1: Pushkin. This cautionary tale was inspired by a suggestion from
Speaker 1: a loyal listener. Thank you, JP, I hope you enjoy
Speaker 1: the episode. Brah, Robert O'Hara Burke calls out the name
Speaker 1: of the man he'd left in charge of the camp
Speaker 1: at Cooper's Creek, Coo.
Speaker 2: Braha.
Speaker 1: Dusk is falling, Burke and his two surviving colleagues recognize
Speaker 1: their surroundings. The camp is close. They've traveled thirty miles
Speaker 1: that day, clinging wearily to the backs of their two
Speaker 1: surviving camels, who are just as exhausted as they are.
Speaker 2: Brah.
Speaker 1: It's been over four months since they saw Braha and
Speaker 1: the other men they left at Cooper's Creek. In that time,
Speaker 1: they've trekked two thousand miles to the northern coast of
Speaker 1: Australia and back again. They're the first white men ever
Speaker 1: to cross the country. Glory and fame await when they
Speaker 1: get back to Melbourne, still nearly another thousand miles away,
Speaker 1: but now they'll have support, more men, fresh camels and
Speaker 1: horses and food and goodness. Been on half rations for weeks,
Speaker 1: But where's Braha?
Speaker 2: Pattern mcdonna.
Speaker 1: No response from anyone, Admittedly, Burke had assured them he'd
Speaker 1: be back at the camp in three months, not four.
Speaker 1: They might by now have assumed he was lost or
Speaker 1: had taken a different route back to Melbourne, but he'd
Speaker 1: asked them to stay at Cooper's Creek for as long
Speaker 1: as their supplies lasted, and their supplies should have been
Speaker 1: replenished long ago.
Speaker 2: Braha pattern mcdonna.
Speaker 1: They can't be far away. They've probably just gone to
Speaker 1: water the camels and the horses. They'll be back any moment. Then,
Speaker 1: Burke's second in command sees the dates carved into the
Speaker 1: Coolibar tree December six sixty April twenty one sixty one.
Speaker 1: The sixth of December eighteen sixty That was when they
Speaker 1: established this camp, four and a half months ago. So
Speaker 1: the other date must be when Braha abandoned the camp,
Speaker 1: the twenty first of eight April eighteen sixty one. That's today.
Speaker 1: They abandoned the camp today, Braha. The ashes in the
Speaker 1: campfire are still worn. Other letters carved into the tree
Speaker 1: DG three ft NW dig three feet to the northwest.
Speaker 1: They dig loosely buried under camel doong and dirt is
Speaker 1: a trunk. In the trunk is a bottle, and in
Speaker 1: the bottle a note. It's signed by William.
Speaker 2: Braha Depot Cooper's Creek, twenty first of April eighteen sixty one.
Speaker 2: The depot party leaves this camp today.
Speaker 1: But why? For medical attention?
Speaker 2: It seems Pattern is unable to walk, his leg has
Speaker 2: been severely hurt.
Speaker 3: But where are the others?
Speaker 1: Where's the third group of Burke's expedition, the ones he
Speaker 1: left at the last outpost of civilization on the Darling River,
Speaker 1: who are going to follow up to Cooper's Creek with
Speaker 1: all the other supplies? Where are they?
Speaker 2: No person has been up here from the Darling.
Speaker 1: So that depot party's supplies haven't been replenished, and Brajo
Speaker 1: will have had to take much of what remained for
Speaker 1: his journey back. Burke and his two companions look again
Speaker 1: in the buried chest. They've been left some flour, sugar, tea,
Speaker 1: and dried meat. Not much, not enough, but at least
Speaker 1: they can eat Tonight. They eat, they rest, they discuss
Speaker 1: their predicament, and then they make a catastrophically bad decision.
Speaker 1: I'm Tim Harford, and you're listening to cautionary tales. How
Speaker 1: the calm.
Speaker 2: Stands fall like shot himself.
Speaker 1: Robert O'Hara Burke sits in the front row of the theater.
Speaker 1: He was there last night. He'll be there tomorrow night too.
Speaker 1: Burke is Irish, a former soldier. Seven years ago he
Speaker 1: moved to the newly established British Crown Colony of Victoria,
Speaker 1: Australia wasn't yet a country with states. Burke became superintendent
Speaker 1: of police in a fast growing gold rush town seventy
Speaker 1: miles from Victoria's capital, Melbourne. He spends his time chasing
Speaker 1: horse thieves or quelling trouble from workers on the railway
Speaker 1: who had disgruntled with their boss. What sort of man
Speaker 1: was Robert O'Hara Burke, Apart from, as it seemed, a
Speaker 1: theater lover, he was untidy, says one account. He dressed
Speaker 1: like a peasant and dribbled saliva down his bushy black beard.
Speaker 1: But he came from a well connected family. He spoke
Speaker 1: several languages, and he was quite at ease in the
Speaker 1: poshest social circles the young colony had to offer. He
Speaker 1: was a daredevil eccentric. You might find him galloping his
Speaker 1: horse madly through swamps and forests, or reading police reports
Speaker 1: in a bathtub in his yard, wearing nothing but his helmet.
Speaker 1: He bore grudges. Burke fell out with a magistrate whose
Speaker 1: particular bugbear happened to be people swinging on his front gate.
Speaker 1: Burke would ride thirty miles just to swing on that gate.
Speaker 1: And a theater lover, not exactly Burke had fallen head
Speaker 1: over heels for a young actress. She sang and starred
Speaker 1: in burlesques and pantomimes, roles like Cupid, the Mischievous God
Speaker 1: of Love. When she played in nearby towns, Burke always
Speaker 1: found an excuse to gallop over. He claimed there was
Speaker 1: a promising lead on a gang of horse thieves, when
Speaker 1: he really just wanted an excuse to watch Julia Matthews.
Speaker 2: I don't think I'm ugly.
Speaker 1: I'm only just twenty.
Speaker 2: I know I shouldn't make a most excellent wife.
Speaker 3: There girls all around me have lovers in plenty, but
Speaker 3: I'm not a sweetheart can get for my life.
Speaker 1: Julia was not, in fact, only just twenty. She was
Speaker 1: still a teenager. Burke was pushing forty. Julia must have
Speaker 1: been disconcerted that a man twice her age was stalking
Speaker 1: her from town to town, gazing adoringly up from a
Speaker 1: front row seat, dribbling saliva. Burke proposed marriage. Julia said no,
Speaker 1: but Burke wasn't discouraged. He bought a piano and hired
Speaker 1: a teacher to teach him the Songsia sang hour after hour.
Speaker 1: He practiced with blankets draped around the piano so he
Speaker 1: didn't wake the neighbour's baby. In Melbourne, meanwhile, the freshly
Speaker 1: minted Royal Society of Victoria was planning an expedition from
Speaker 1: their city in the south to the northern coast. It
Speaker 1: had never been done before. Ships had sailed round Australia
Speaker 1: and explorers from various coastal cities were venturing further inland,
Speaker 1: but the center on a map remained a ghastly blank.
Speaker 1: What was there just desert? Or was there, as some thought,
Speaker 1: an inland sea. Could they map a route for a
Speaker 1: telegraph wire to speed up communication with Europe. Might they
Speaker 1: find land that was good for pasture.
Speaker 3: Or more gold?
Speaker 1: The society had raised the money for the expedition, but
Speaker 1: couldn't agree on who should lead it. Ideally they'd hire
Speaker 1: an experienced explorer, but no one was available, or no
Speaker 1: one from Victoria. The experienced explorers were all from other
Speaker 1: British colonies. Elsewhere in Australia, rivalry was strong. It was
Speaker 1: a matter of pride to the Royal Society of Victoria
Speaker 1: that someone from Victoria should cross the country first. They
Speaker 1: advertised the post and got some unconvincing applicants. One proposed
Speaker 1: to solve the problem of crossing the desert by stretching
Speaker 1: out a very long hose pipe from the last known river.
Speaker 1: Then a major funder of the project, a railway magnet,
Speaker 1: suggested someone had got to know Irish former office now
Speaker 1: a police chief, very effective at quelling trouble from disgruntled workers,
Speaker 1: A manly character with determined energy. Eccentric, yes, but from
Speaker 1: a very good family, Robert O'Hara Burke. Some who knew
Speaker 1: Burke were astonished at the idea of him crossing Australia.
Speaker 1: He was the worst bushman I ever met, said one.
Speaker 1: Another added he could not tell the Norse from the
Speaker 1: South in broad daylight. Burke himself needed no persuading.
Speaker 2: If I come out successful, I have no doubt but
Speaker 2: that Julia will accept my offer of marriage.
Speaker 1: In August eighteen sixty the expedition prepared for departure in
Speaker 1: a park in Melbourne. It consisted of nineteen men, twenty
Speaker 1: three horses, seven camels and twenty one tons of baggage.
Speaker 1: Burke watched it all being piled on wagons and animal's
Speaker 1: backs with mounting alarm. He had somehow lost control of
Speaker 1: what was being packed.
Speaker 2: What are we going to do with all this?
Speaker 3: Who?
Speaker 1: For instance, decided they'd need twelve sets of dan draft
Speaker 1: brushes in the outback. They were taking an oak dining
Speaker 1: table and a gong from China, and a boat. A
Speaker 1: boat on wheels, so it was also a wagon, but
Speaker 1: a boat. Nonetheless, they might need one if they encountered
Speaker 1: an inland sea. Before they set off, Burke had one
Speaker 1: thing he needed to do. It had a photograph taken
Speaker 1: and made into a miniature portrait, which he now placed
Speaker 1: in a locket. He went to see Julia Matthews and
Speaker 1: again asked her to marry him. This time, the teenage
Speaker 1: actress didn't reject the proposal out of hand. Burke might
Speaker 1: be twenty one years her senior, but if he succeeded,
Speaker 1: he'd be the most famous man in the land. Wise,
Speaker 1: perhaps to keep her options open, Julia said she'd consider
Speaker 1: his proposal on his return. For now, she accepted the
Speaker 1: locket cautionary tales, will be back after the break. Robert
Speaker 1: O'Hara Burke was trying to cross Australia from Melbourne, Victoria
Speaker 1: in the south to the unmapped north. The journey hit
Speaker 1: planned had two stopping off points. About a quarterway up.
Speaker 1: A few hundred miles north of Melbourne was the last
Speaker 1: outpost of civilization, a tiny settlement on the Darling River,
Speaker 1: a few houses, a pub, and general store. From there,
Speaker 1: Burke would press on a few hundred miles more to
Speaker 1: Cooper's Creek, almost halfway up the country, the furthest point
Speaker 1: mapped by any explorer. At Cooper's Creek, he'd establish a
Speaker 1: camp and a depot, he'd secure his lines of communication
Speaker 1: back to the outpost on the Darling, and then he'd
Speaker 1: set forth into uncharted territory, a thousand or so miles
Speaker 1: remaining to a gulf in the north. That was the plan, anyway,
Speaker 1: But then they'd accumulated twenty one tons of baggage.
Speaker 2: What are we going to do with all this?
Speaker 1: As it happened, Burke's despairing question had a sensible answer.
Speaker 1: For the first leg of the journey, at least that
Speaker 1: outpost on the Darling River was served by a paddle steamer.
Speaker 1: Burke could have shipped most of his supplies up the
Speaker 1: river and traveled light with the horses and camels that
Speaker 1: arrived fresh and ready for the push to Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 1: That would be sensible. Why not do that? Alas Burke
Speaker 1: had fallen out with the owner of the steamboat company,
Speaker 1: he insisted on hauling everything over land instead. That was
Speaker 1: his first catastrophic decision, if you don't count taking the
Speaker 1: job in the first place. The journey from Melbourne to
Speaker 1: the Darling could be done in ten days by a
Speaker 1: messenger on horseback. It took Burke's expedition fifty six days.
Speaker 1: In that time. Of the nineteen men who had set out,
Speaker 1: Burke had lost eleven, either he fired them or argued
Speaker 1: with them till they quit. He hired five more along
Speaker 1: the way and lost three of them. Two He hired
Speaker 1: more wagons to help with the baggage. That ruinous expense
Speaker 1: he kept breaking down. As Burke complained in messages to Melbourne.
Speaker 2: The roads are very bad.
Speaker 1: He wrote so many checks for wagon repairs. The Royal
Speaker 1: Society of Victoria's bank account round dry, and the checks
Speaker 1: began to bounce. Burke finally decided he'd have to dump
Speaker 1: some supplies. In a small town, he held a public auction.
Speaker 1: Among the stuff he got rid of was their lime juice,
Speaker 1: which helps prevent scurvy. As we heard about in another
Speaker 1: cautionary tale, when limeers get scurvy, scurvy creeps up on
Speaker 1: you with lack of vitaminc. It starts with aching gums,
Speaker 1: then slowly rots your body. Burke really shouldn't have ditched
Speaker 1: the lime juice. As the expedition stutted on, news reached
Speaker 1: Melbourne that another explorer from another Crown colony was also
Speaker 1: setting off with the aim of crossing the country first.
Speaker 1: Members of the Royal Society of Victoria's Exploration Committee hen
Speaker 1: anxious letters.
Speaker 2: My dearest Burke, well know to a certain extent the erase,
Speaker 2: I know how exciting this must be to you. The
Speaker 2: honor of Victoria is end your hands. Oh and the
Speaker 2: committee were rather alarmed that, finding the expense greater than
Speaker 2: they anticipated.
Speaker 1: Burke tried a shortcut to make up time. The wagons
Speaker 1: sank so deep in sand they had to be dug
Speaker 1: out with shovels. The horses got so exhausted they simply stopped.
Speaker 1: After fifty six days, Burke and what remained of his
Speaker 1: expedition staggered towards the handful of houses on the Darling River.
Speaker 1: They had completed barely a quarter of their outward journey,
Speaker 1: and it should have been the easiest part through land
Speaker 1: that was already colonized. As they arrived, they watched the
Speaker 1: parbon General's store unload a new shipment of stock from
Speaker 1: a paddle steamer. At the outpost on the Darling River.
Speaker 1: Burke assessed his options. It fired his second in command,
Speaker 1: so he needed to promote someone. He chose an earnest
Speaker 1: young Englishman called William Wills. Wills's mum hadn't wanted him
Speaker 1: to go on this expedition, but, as he wrote.
Speaker 3: Her, were we born to be locked up in comfortable rooms,
Speaker 3: never to incur the hazard of mishap.
Speaker 1: Unlike Burke, Wills was a scientist, a trained surveyor. It
Speaker 1: was his job to find their way with a compass
Speaker 1: and by observing the stars at night, and to keep
Speaker 1: meteorological observations. Wills had quite enjoyed the journey so far.
Speaker 3: Riding on the camels is much more pleasant than I anticipated.
Speaker 3: I sit on the back portion behind the hump, and
Speaker 3: packed the instruments in front. I can thus ride on,
Speaker 3: keeping my journal and making calculations.
Speaker 1: By now it was late in spring. The summer heat
Speaker 1: would soon make it dangerous to travel further north. It
Speaker 1: would be sensible to wait a few months and resume
Speaker 1: their travels in autumn. Sensible, but Burke was in a race.
Speaker 1: He decided to split the party up. He'd take the
Speaker 1: fittest men, horses and camels, and a few months worth
Speaker 1: of food and press on to Cooper's Creek in charge
Speaker 1: of the others. He left a man he'd met in
Speaker 1: the pub who'd managed a local sheep station and seemed
Speaker 1: to know what he was doing. Burke sent a letter
Speaker 1: to Melbourne to explain.
Speaker 2: I informed him that I should consider him third officer
Speaker 2: of the expedition, subject to the approval of the committee.
Speaker 2: In the meantime, I have instructed him to follow me
Speaker 2: up with the remainder of the camels to Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 1: But was the man from the pub expected to wait
Speaker 1: for the committee's approval before he followed up to Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 1: Burke's instructions alas were unclear. When I've talked about civilization,
Speaker 1: I've been using quote marks on the colonial maps. The
Speaker 1: center of Australia might have looked like a ghastly blank,
Speaker 1: but it was of course home to ancient civilizations of
Speaker 1: its own. Near Cooper's Creek lived four main groups of
Speaker 1: Aboriginal people. They moved around to find food and water,
Speaker 1: but they knew whose land was whose, and when you
Speaker 1: visited others land there were conventions to follow, much as
Speaker 1: I might knock on your door and wait to be
Speaker 1: invited in Burke and Wills neither knew nor cared about
Speaker 1: these conventions. They simply marched straight up to the watering
Speaker 1: holes with their horses and camels. The Aboriginal people didn't
Speaker 1: know what to make of these white fellers. They tried
Speaker 1: to be friendly. Wills was having none of it.
Speaker 3: A large tribe of blacks came pestering us to go
Speaker 3: to their camp and have a dance, which we declined.
Speaker 3: They were very troublesome, and nothing but the threat to
Speaker 3: shoot will keep them away.
Speaker 1: The desert heat was stifling. Will's thermometer showed one hundred
Speaker 1: and nine, but they found Cooper's Creek to be teeming
Speaker 1: with life, fish and birds and trees, though also rats
Speaker 1: and flies and mosquitoes. On the sixth of December eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty they set up their camp like the jolly Swagman
Speaker 1: of Song, under the shade of a kolibar tree. Remember
Speaker 1: what Burke was supposed to do at Cooper's Creek, establish
Speaker 1: a depot, secure his lines of communication back to that
Speaker 1: outpost on the Darling, and only then explore the uncharted
Speaker 1: territory to the north. It would have been sensible to
Speaker 1: wait for the man from the pub to arrive with
Speaker 1: the rest of the supplies, but Burke was sure he'd
Speaker 1: be along soon, and anyway, there was a race on
Speaker 1: split his party again. He'd push for the northern coast.
Speaker 1: With Wills and two others in charge of the depot,
Speaker 1: he left a quiet but capable young German, William Braha.
Speaker 1: Burke told Braha they'd be back in three months. He
Speaker 1: was taking only three months worth of food, after all,
Speaker 1: And if Burke wasn't back in three months, well, he
Speaker 1: might have found a route to another settlement in another colony.
Speaker 1: That had also been vague talk of a ship being
Speaker 1: sent to meet him at the Gulf in the north
Speaker 1: he hoped to reach, but the man from the pub
Speaker 1: would have come with more supplies by then, so Braha
Speaker 1: could stay at Cooper's Creek anyway, whatever, it'd be fine.
Speaker 2: You must not fret. I shall be back in a
Speaker 2: short time.
Speaker 1: Caution, retales will also be back in a short time.
Speaker 1: In his nineteen sixty book The Strategy of Conflict, the game,
Speaker 1: theorist Thomas Shelling asks us to imagine a couple who
Speaker 1: lose each other in a department store. It's nineteen sixty,
Speaker 1: so they can't just call. But the chances are good,
Speaker 1: says Shelling, that they'll find each other. They'll each think
Speaker 1: of some obvious place to meet that will obviously be
Speaker 1: obvious to the other. Shelling calls this a coordination game.
Speaker 1: Can you coordinate if you can't communicate? You win the
Speaker 1: game if you give the same answer as the other player.
Speaker 1: The question, he says, is not what would I do
Speaker 1: if I were she? But what would I do if
Speaker 1: I were she? Wondering what she would do if she
Speaker 1: were I wondering what I would do if I were she.
Speaker 1: The trick is to look for what Shelling calls a
Speaker 1: focal point in the situation. Different places in the department
Speaker 1: store will seem obvious to different couples, but we can
Speaker 1: play coordination games with strangers too. Shelling asks people to
Speaker 1: imagine they've been told to meet someone in New York,
Speaker 1: but not a time or location. Where might they try
Speaker 1: In an age when most people arrived by train, many
Speaker 1: gave Shelling the same answer by the famous clock at
Speaker 1: Grand Central Terminal at noon. How do you play the
Speaker 1: coordination game? Logic helps, says Shelling, but usually not until
Speaker 1: imagination has selected some clue to work on from among
Speaker 1: the concrete details of the situation. The problem comes when
Speaker 1: you're so confident in your own answer you don't bother
Speaker 1: to look for a backup plan. In Cooper's Creek in
Speaker 1: April eighteen sixty one, William Braher wonders how long it's
Speaker 1: reasonable to keep waiting for Burke Wills and their two companions.
Speaker 1: They have been gone for over four months. Maybe they're dead,
Speaker 1: maybe they're on a ship back to Melbourne. He has
Speaker 1: no way to communicate with them. The man from the
Speaker 1: pub never arrived. Pattens hurt his leg and can't walk,
Speaker 1: but more worryingly, his gums are bleeding too. Wait much
Speaker 1: longer and they risk never making it back to civilization
Speaker 1: at all. They decide to leave on the morning of
Speaker 1: April or twenty first. Braha writes a letter just in
Speaker 1: case Burke eventually makes it back. He puts the letter
Speaker 1: in a bottle, and the bottle in a chest with
Speaker 1: as much food as he can spare. He buries the chest.
Speaker 1: Now will Burke no, it's there? The focal point for
Speaker 1: coordination seems obvious, the coolibar tree in the shade of
Speaker 1: which they made their camp. He carves instructions into the tree,
Speaker 1: dig three feet northwest. He adds the date and abandons
Speaker 1: the camp. That evening, Burke, Wills, and one more man,
Speaker 1: John King, stagger into the camp. The fourth man died,
Speaker 1: and the three were so weak it took a whole
Speaker 1: day to dig his grave. If they hadn't buried him
Speaker 1: that had been back at Cooper's Creek a day earlier.
Speaker 1: They try not to think about that. Burke, Wills, and
Speaker 1: King assess their options. Should they follow Braha back along
Speaker 1: the track towards the outpost on the Darling River. It's
Speaker 1: hundreds of miles but never make it. But if a
Speaker 1: search party comes, it would be from that direction. Burke
Speaker 1: has another idea. The incomplete maps of Australia show another
Speaker 1: tiny outpost only one hundred and fifty miles away along
Speaker 1: Cooper's Creek. It's called Mount Hopeless. The food from the
Speaker 1: chest might just be enough for that shorter journey. Burke
Speaker 1: writes a letter outlining his plans.
Speaker 2: We proceed on tomorrow slowly down the creek towards Mount Hopeless.
Speaker 2: We are very weak, we have all suffered much from hunger.
Speaker 2: Greatly disappointed at finding the party here gone, we shall
Speaker 2: move very slowly down the creek.
Speaker 1: He puts the letter in a box, puts the bottle
Speaker 1: in the chest, and buries it in the same place.
Speaker 1: The three men briefly discuss whether they should also add
Speaker 1: a mark to the tree. They decide not to bother.
Speaker 1: As King later explained.
Speaker 3: We thought the word deg would answer our purpose as
Speaker 3: well as ours.
Speaker 1: Obviously, if a search party came to the camp, let's
Speaker 1: see the word dig and dig up the chest, wouldn't they? Burke,
Speaker 1: Wills and King spread dung over the chest so it
Speaker 1: doesn't look like the ground has been disturbed. They don't
Speaker 1: want the locals to steal it. They leave the abandoned
Speaker 1: camp looking almost exactly as they found it. Just ninety
Speaker 1: miles south of Cooper's Creek, William Braher bumps into the
Speaker 1: man from the pub, William Wright. So he is making
Speaker 1: his way from the Darling to Cooper's Creek, just months
Speaker 1: later than expected. Wright's instructions remember were unclear. He'd explained
Speaker 1: to Braha that he had assumed he should wait for
Speaker 1: the Royal Society of Victoria to approve his appointment. Burke's
Speaker 1: checks had been bouncing. He didn't want to set off
Speaker 1: until he got explicit assurance that he'd be paid in Melbourne.
Speaker 1: The Society's committee assumed there was no rush to confirm
Speaker 1: Right's appointment because he would have set off already. When
Speaker 1: Wright eventually did set off, his journey was slow because
Speaker 1: some of his men were suffering from scurvy. Braha and
Speaker 1: Wright agreed there was no longer any point in lugging
Speaker 1: the rest of the supplies to Cooper's Creek. They should
Speaker 1: all now return to the Darling. But they shared a
Speaker 1: nagging worry. What if Burke had made it back. The
Speaker 1: ill men could use a few days rest. Braha and
Speaker 1: Right decided to ride together quickly back to Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 3: Just to check.
Speaker 1: At Cooper's Creek. Braha and Right see no sign that
Speaker 1: Burke's been there. The camp looks just like we left it.
Speaker 1: Braha tells Right. They don't bother to dig up the chest. Obviously,
Speaker 1: if Burke had put a message there, he would mark
Speaker 1: the tree. Burke, Wills, and King were moving very slowly
Speaker 1: down the creek, as their note had said, they were
Speaker 1: just a day's ride away. When Braha and Right didn't
Speaker 1: read that note, the task of reaching Mount Hopeless was
Speaker 1: looking hopeless.
Speaker 3: The rations are rapidly diminishing. Our clothing, especially the boots,
Speaker 3: all going to pieces. Camel is completely done up and
Speaker 3: can scarcely get along. I suppose this will end in
Speaker 3: our having to live like the Blacks for a few months.
Speaker 1: But they couldn't live like Aboriginal people. They didn't have
Speaker 1: the skills to catch fish or over sixty thousand years
Speaker 1: worth of accumulated nohow on how to extract nourishment from
Speaker 1: the local plants. The Aboriginal people tried to be kind,
Speaker 1: bringing gifts of food. Burke fired his revolver to scare
Speaker 1: them away.
Speaker 3: King recalled he was afraid of being too friendly, lest
Speaker 3: they should always be in our camp.
Speaker 1: Burke got his wish. They were left alone to slowly starve.
Speaker 3: My legs and arms are nearly skin and bone.
Speaker 1: Burke had learned one noble lesson. At least, he told King.
Speaker 2: This is my wish that you leave me unburied.
Speaker 1: Wright and Braha made it back to the outpost on
Speaker 1: the Darling and sent news to Melbourne. Burke was missing.
Speaker 1: The newspapers were aghast. The Royal Society of Victoria organized
Speaker 1: a search party and this time found a proper explorer
Speaker 1: to lead it. They were asked to take a letter
Speaker 1: with them from Julia Matthews.
Speaker 2: My dear Sir, I dare say you almost forget me,
Speaker 2: But if you scrape your various reminiscences of the past,
Speaker 2: you will recollect the laughing and joyous etc.
Speaker 3: Cupid. All the citizens in Melbourne join in love to you,
Speaker 3: bless your little heart.
Speaker 1: The search party eventually found a white man living with
Speaker 1: the Yandruanda tribe not far from Cooper's Creek.
Speaker 2: Who, in the name of wonder are you?
Speaker 3: I am, King Sir of Bug's exploring expedition?
Speaker 2: Where is he? And Wills?
Speaker 3: Did? Both dead? Long ago?
Speaker 1: After Burke and Wills expired John King had understood that
Speaker 1: only friendliness could save him. The news of Burke's death
Speaker 1: reached Melbourne, and the news from King that they actually
Speaker 1: had made it to the north, not quite as far
Speaker 1: as the ocean, but to impenetrable mangroves, where the water
Speaker 1: was salty and moved with the tide close enough, and
Speaker 1: the news they might have made it home if only
Speaker 1: Braha had stayed one day longer. Burke was a hero,
Speaker 1: a tragic fallen hero. As the city mourned, a young
Speaker 1: woman went to a newspaper to place an ad in
Speaker 1: the Lost and Found column Lost.
Speaker 2: In the Botanical Gardens yesterday afternoon, a gold bracelet with
Speaker 2: carbuncle in center and miniature The finder will be handsomely rewarded.
Speaker 1: The newspaper reported the story behind the ad. The miniature
Speaker 1: portrait lost by Julia Matthews was of none other than
Speaker 1: Robert O'Hara Burke. Yes, this star of the stage was
Speaker 1: the fallen hero's sweetheart. Hmm. Had Julia really lost Burke's
Speaker 1: gift or had she spied an opportunity for publicity. If
Speaker 1: it was a stunt, it was cynically brilliant. Robert O'Hara
Speaker 1: Burke made one catastrophic error after another. He overpacked, he
Speaker 1: ditched the lime juice, he gave unclear instructions, he didn't
Speaker 1: plan for contingencies, and he failed to appreciate that Aboriginal
Speaker 1: people had skills he lacked. Yet he still might have
Speaker 1: been saved if he had played a better game of
Speaker 1: what would I do if I were he wondering what
Speaker 1: would he do if he were I? To bra Her
Speaker 1: and Wright, marking the tree was so obvious that they
Speaker 1: didn't bother to check the chest. To Burke and Wills,
Speaker 1: checking the chest was so obvious that they didn't bother
Speaker 1: to mark the tree. Playing the coordination game, says Thomas Schelling,
Speaker 1: takes both logic and imagination. Burke and Wills were undone
Speaker 1: by a failure of both. For a full list of
Speaker 1: our sources, see the show notes at Timharford dot com.
Speaker 1: Cautionary Tales is written by me Tim Harford, with Andrew Wright,
Speaker 1: Alice Fines, and Ryan Dilley. It's produced by Georgia Mills
Speaker 1: and Marilyn Rust. The sound design and original music are
Speaker 1: the work of Pascal Wise. Additional sound design by Carlos
Speaker 1: San Juan at Grain Audio and Dan Jackson bend A.
Speaker 1: Dafhaffrey edited the scripts. It features the voice talents of
Speaker 1: Melanie Guttridge, Genevieve Gaunt, Stella, Harford, Massa Munroe, Jamal Westman,
Speaker 1: and rufus Wright. The show also wouldn't have been possible
Speaker 1: without the work of Jacob Weisberg, Greta Cohne, Eric Sandler,
Speaker 1: Carrie Brody, Christina Sullivan, Kira Posey, and Owen Miller. Cautionary
Speaker 1: Tales is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like
Speaker 1: the show, please remember to share, rate, and review. It
Speaker 1: really does make a difference to us, and if you
Speaker 1: want to hear it, add free and receive a bonus
Speaker 1: audio episode, video episode, and members only newsletter every month.
Speaker 1: Why not join the Cautionary Club. To sign up, head
Speaker 1: to patreon dot com slash Cautionary Club. That's Patreon, p A,
Speaker 1: t R e o N dot com slash Cautionary clubh