•260 PORT PHILLIP. 



good earnest with our surveying operations ; — in the 

 first place selecting a conspicuous spot for observa- 

 tion, from which all the meridians of our work in the 

 western part of the Strait were to be measured. 

 For the sake of my nautical readers I may mention 

 that the western extreme of the cliffy patches on 

 the south shore of the bay, marks the place chosen. 

 The nature of our employment confining us to the 

 neighbourhood of the entrance, we had no oppor- 

 tunity of visiting the town of Melbourne, situated 

 near the northern side of the bay. This capital of 

 Australia Felix had for a long time been known to 

 some squatters from Tasmania ; but to Sir Thomas 

 Mitchell the inhabitants must ever feel grateful for 

 revealing to the world at large the fertility of the 

 districts in its neiohbourhood. It is not a little sin- 

 gular that the attempt to form a settlem.ent at this 

 place in 1826 should have failed. A fort w'as built 

 and abandoned, and of the party of convicts who 

 accompanied the expedition, two escaped and joined 

 the natives, by whom one was murdered, whilst the 

 other, contriving by some means to ingratiate himself 

 with them, remained in their company until 1835, 

 when he was d'scovered by the settlers from 

 Tasmania. During the eleven years he had passed 

 in the bush, without coming in contact with any 

 other European, he had entirely forgotten his own 

 language, and had degenerated into a perfect savage. 

 His intellect, if he ever possessed much, had almost 

 entirely deserted him ; and nothing of any value 

 could be gleaned from him respecting the history 



