THE NEW COLONY 319 



there, but was told as he had gone so far afield he would have to 

 protect himself. This turned out to be something more serious 

 than he had contemplated, for on getting back to the Avon, he 

 found the station raided by the natives, his men fled, and the 

 cattle dispersed. As his Highland spirit was roused he soon 

 organised a party of half a dozen assistants, and after some skir- 

 mishes with the blacks, with what result to them he does not tell 

 us, he re-established his quarters, and was thenceforth undisturbed. 

 But he had formed this station against his employer's instructions, 

 having been told that access to Corner Inlet, or some equally good 

 shipping port, was a primal necessity if the stock were ever to be 

 marketed. He made more than one unsuccessful effort to complete 

 this part of his instructions, and on the 9th of February, 1841, he 

 started with five companions, and in five days reached the site 

 now occupied by the town of Port Albert. Three months later he 

 had marked out a practicable track, and driven a dray from the 

 station to the port. Count Strzelecki, who was honoured by the 

 Royal Geographical Society with the founder's gold medal, as 

 the discoverer of Gipps Land, did not enter upon the scene until 

 the 26th of March, 1840, when his party passed the station 

 on the Tambo managed by McMillan, and received from the people 

 there full particulars of the journey to the McAlister Eiver, from 

 which they had just returned. The Count's party was supplied 

 with both provisions and directions, and a guide for one day to 

 enable them to pick up the tracks. They did not reach Port 

 Albert, though ostensibly Corner Inlet was their destination. A few 

 days after crossing the Latrobe Eiver they had to abandon their 

 horses, and having only four days' provisions left, on a reduced 

 ration, they, under a strange misapprehension of the distance, 

 attempted to take a direct line for Western Port, the nearest known 

 settlement. For twenty-two days they toiled on over ranges and 

 through dense undergrowth, literally hacking their way, broken 

 down by anxiety and enfeebled by starvation. For more than a 

 fortnight they had nothing to eat but the flesh of the native bear, 

 pungently flavoured with eucalyptus. And this they were often 

 compelled to eat raw from inability to raise a fire in the wet under- 

 growth. They arrived at the old settlement on Western Port Bay 



