PREFACE. 



To anticipate criticism, I desire to say that, despite the title, 

 these volumes make no pretension to the science of history. 

 They are simply the annals of a colony in which I have 

 spent half a century of my life, and claim only the merit of 

 accuracy so far as facts are concerned. For the first 

 eighteen years of the period treated of I have been neces- 

 sarily dependent upon the records and oral statements of 

 others. I had the advantage of a personal acquaintance 

 with Mr. John Pascoe Fawkner, Mr. John Helder Wedge, 

 Sir William A'Beckett, Mr. D. C. McArthur, and at least a 

 dozen others who shaped events in the Thirties and Forties. 

 I have not always found their reminiscences accurate, but 

 I have invariably endeavoured to verify them. Since 1854 

 all the events recorded have passed practically under my 

 own observation. I am familiar with the aspect of the 

 whole colony, from the Mallee wildernesses of the North 

 to the forests of Cape Otway ; from the pastoral plains 

 around the lake districts of the West to the Buffalo Ranges 

 and the table lands of far Omeo. The progress of agricul- 

 tural settlement has been closely watched by me, and in my 

 official career I have had some part in supervising and stimu- 

 lating it. 



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