Lhstory of the “ Dayspring.” 55 
and she then came on to Melbourne. It had been previously 
arranged that on this occasion she should go into Geelong har- 
bour, with the view of adding to the interest felt in the mission 
by the residents of the western district of Victoria. In no por- 
tion of the colony did Mr. Paton get greater encouragement, 
when collecting money for the building of the mission ship, 
than in the Western District—pre-eminently the garden of 
Victoria ; but that was eight years before, and, meanwhile, a 
new generation of children had sprung up, te whom Mr. Paton 
and the “Dayspring” were only a tradition. And _ besides, 
Ballarat, which in 1862 was not much more than an encamp- 
ment of tents, was in 1870 a city with many churches and mul- 
titudes of Sabbath school children. And so the “ Dayspring ” 
was sent to Geelong harbour, or, as it is called, Corio Bay, 
the most western point of the great land-locked sheet of water 
called Port Phillip. 
The following notice, taken from a Melbourne periodical, 
gives the impressions of an eye-witness as to the effect of the 
visit of the ‘‘ Dayspring” on Geelong and Ballarat :— 
Corio Bay, or Geelong harbour, is the inmost point of Port Phillip, 
and is surely intended by nature for the site of a seaport. The bay is 
quite land-locked, and any amount of shipping could ride at anchor in- 
side of Point Henry. The time was when Geelong thought that its 
natural advantages would give it the start even of Melbourne, and make 
it the commercial metropolis of Victoria: but it requires more than 
natural advantages to make a great town; and Melbourne, though 
standing on an open bay which is little better than a roadstead, has out- 
stripped not only Geelong, but even Sydney, and has really no rival on 
the south side of the line. . Geelong, however, though not equal to 
Melbourne, is yet a considerable town; and with its safe ,harbour, and 
with railways to Colac and farther west, will be sure to advance. Gee- 
long has a population of, say, 20,000 souls, and the town is already get- 
ting a character of its own. Without the bustle of Melbourne or Bal- 
larat, it is becoming a domestic town, remarkable for the number of 
people who are settling there for the education of their families and for 
