Negative assessment of Leichhardt's achievements as an explorer is introduced by praise of A.C. Gregory, W. O. Hodgkinson, Edmund Kennedy, and Burke and Wills with expressions of regret at loss of life. Meston accuses Leichhardt of stealing food on the Peak Downs expedition of 1846-1847, of being 'a mournful failure' as a leader, and of living like most scientists, 'wrapped up in cold, selfish isolation.'