58 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



jaded cattle, to take stock of their stores, and to plan their return 

 journey. 



The account of the Journey of Discovery to Port Phillip, origin- 

 ally published in Sydney in 1831, edited by Wm. Bland, which 

 Hovell declared to be the only authentic narrative of the expedition 

 (compiled from his field book), is so loose in its descriptions and so 

 provedly unreliable in its latitudes and longitudes, that it is quite 

 impossible to identify from it the actual point on the coast where 

 they spent this memorable day. The balance of evidence is in 

 favour of its having been near a point called Bird Rock on Corio 

 Bay, nearly opposite Point Henry, and about ten miles from the 

 site of Geelong. At the time, Hovell at least believed it to be the 

 north shore of Western Port, and it is thus described in the narra- 

 tive referred to : " The harbour or bay consists of an immense 

 sheet of water, its greatest length extending east and west with 

 land, which had the appearance of an island, to the southward 

 lying across its mouth, but which, in fact, is a peninsula, with a 

 very low isthmus connecting it to the western shore ". It will be 

 seen that this applies pretty accurately to the view across Corio 

 Bay, but is entirely inapplicable to the view of French Island from 

 the northern shore of Western Port. Nevertheless, on the return 

 of the explorers to Sydney, both in the communications to the Press 

 and the reports to the Government, the statement is made that the 

 expedition reached " Western Port, and encamped on the southern 

 point of the right bank of the base at the back of the large island 

 in the bay," a curiously vague description. Although this state- 

 ment was published in a Sydney newspaper in February, 1825, 

 Hume does not appear to have taken the trouble to correct it, 

 though in his Brief Statement of Facts he says positively that he 

 never had any doubt about the locality being a part of Port Phillip 

 Bay. Indeed, he declares that before they discovered the water he 

 recognised, from careful descriptions which had been given him, 

 the prominent landmark which Flinders had named " Station 

 Peak," and was steering by it when they saw the sea. 



During the progress of the long overland journey the party had 

 frequently come upon traces of the natives, and more than once 

 had received from them information about their route. So far their 



