Carnegie invested his profits from the two mines in preparations for his major expedition; he proposed to travel almost from Coolgardie to
Halls Creek. Much of the area through which he intended to travel was unexplored and unmapped, and Carnegie hoped to find good pastoral or gold-bearing land, and to make a name for himself as an explorer. Carnegie's party consisted of five men and nine camels. His travelling companions were the prospectors Charles Stansmore and Godfrey Massie, bushman Joe Breaden, and Breaden's
Aboriginal companion Warri. The party left Coolgardie on 9 July 1896. They travelled north to
Menzies, then north east. On 23 July they entered largely unexplored country, and were immediately affected by the extreme scarcity of water. By 9 August they were desperately short of water; that day they came upon a native, who they captured and forced to show where water was located. The supply they were led to was an underground spring in a hidden cave, which Carnegie named Empress Spring after Queen Victoria. The party realised they could never have found this on their own. This became the pattern for the remainder of the expedition: whenever short of water, the party tracked down and captured natives, and tried to force them to lead the expedition to water. Leaving the spring, the expedition continued north. Throughout August, September and October, the party passed through the desert country of the
Gibson and
Great Sandy Deserts. At first, the terrain was largely flat, and consisted almost entirely of
spinifex and sand (hence the name
Spinifex and Sand for Carnegie's published account of the expedition). Later, the flatness of the land was broken up by regular sandridges, running in an east-west direction. Since the party was travelling in a northerly direction, they had to cross these sandridges at right angles, and this made travel even more difficult. Carnegie later wrote of the land: Carnegie managed to bring the party almost entirely through the desert without loss. However, on 2 November, with their journey nearing completion, a number of Carnegie's camels ate poisonous plants, and three died. Four weeks later, with the party only from the
Derby–Halls Creek road, Stansmore slipped while crossing a ridge, and dropped his gun. When the gun hit the ground, the cartridge exploded, and Stansmore was shot through the heart. He died instantly, and was buried nearby by his companions. The remaining members of the party reached Halls Creek four days later, after a journey of 149 days and . On arriving at Halls Creek, the party were informed that two members of the
Calvert Exploring Expedition were missing in the desert. The Calvert expedition had taken a path roughly parallel to the Carnegie expedition, but about further west. Carnegie offered to join the search for the missing men, but despite his familiarity with the search area, he was not sent out immediately, being instead put on standby in Halls Creek. He formulated a search plan, and purchased three horses in anticipation of joining the search, but to the party's great frustration they remained on standby for nearly fifteen weeks. Eventually, it became obvious that the missing men must have perished, and Carnegie retracted his offer of help. Carnegie's expedition was originally intended to terminate at Halls Creek, but since they had found no gold-bearing or pastoral land, the party decided to continue exploring, by returning to Coolgardie by a more easterly overland route. The party left Halls Creek on 22 March 1897, heading east then southeast, before eventually turning south. At first the going was easier than the trip north: water and game were easily found; the natives they encountered were friendly; and the camels' loads had been lightened, enabling them to carry a large supply of water. Later, the party experienced similar hardships to their northerly trip, scarcity of water being the main problem. Although they were able to carry plenty of water with them, this advantage was largely cancelled out by the presence of horses in the party, horses needing regular and generous watering. They arrived back in Coolgardie late in August 1897, having again found no land of interest to prospector or pastoralist. Shortly after the completion of his expedition, Carnegie sold his assets and sailed for England. In England, he wrote and published a book on his experiences in Western Australia, entitled
Spinifex and Sand. He also gave a brief lecture tour, and was awarded a medal by the
Royal Geographical Society. However he was keen to resume exploring, and he expressed interest in joining an expedition from
Cape Town to
Cairo before eventually deciding against it. He also sought funding to lead an expedition to map the country between Lake Rudolf (now
Lake Turkana) in northern
Kenya and the
Nile, but was unsuccessful. Eventually Carnegie accepted a position as Assistant Resident of the Middle Niger in the Protectorate of
Nigeria. He sailed for Africa in December 1899, and took up his job in late January 1900. In November 1900, Carnegie was sent to apprehend a fugitive named Gana. While searching the village of Tawari in the early hours of the morning of 27 November 1900, he was shot in the thigh with a poison arrow. He died fifteen minutes later. He was 29 years old. == References ==