The La Grange expedition was an expedition in 1865 to the vicinity of Lagrange Bay in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Led by Maitland Brown, the expedition initially searched for three settlers who had failed to return from an earlier exploring expedition. The three men were eventually found dead, having been speared and clubbed to death by Aboriginal Australians, some apparently in their sleep. Between six and twenty Aboriginal Australians were subsequently killed by members of the expedition in a controversial protracted fight that is often now referred to as the La Grange Massacre, although the fairness of this term remains a matter of some debate. Background In 1864, an expedition was organised to investigate the story of a convict named Henry Wildman, who claimed to have found gold near Camden Harbour. The expedition found no gold, but good pastoral land was found, and as a result a small pastoral venture was later established at Roebuck Bay. In November 1864, three settlers, Frederick Panter, James Harding and William Goldwyer, set out from the settlement to explore the land around La Grange Bay. The expedition party had provisions to last only two to three weeks, so when they had not returned three weeks later, another settler, Lockier Burges, set out to find them. He tracked them as far as the mangrove swamp around La Grange, but there lost all trace of them. When news of the missing men reached the Government of Western Australia in Perth, a search party was organised, with Maitland Brown appointed leader. There was some speculation that the three men had been killed by Aboriginal Australians, and there were calls for their deaths to be avenged. George Walpole Leake, for example, wrote: For this reason the expedition is sometimes referred to as a punitive expedition. Search A boat, , was chartered, and the party, led by Maitland Brown and including David Francisco and Lockier Burges, left Fremantle on 16 February 1865. On 25 February, Clarence Packet anchored at the mouth of the De Grey River. Members of the party visited Walter Padbury's station for news on the missing men, but there was none. The party then spent nearly two weeks waiting for an Aboriginal person named Dutchmanchum to be found. Dutchmanchum was said to speak the language of the tribes in the Roebuck Bay area, so he was desired to guide the party. When Dutchmanchum was