Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/218



HILST we were urging our book through the press, the mail of the 25th of July brought us still later intelligence, and amongst the pile of papers that came to hand we were pleased to find a report of a work on Port Philip, in two letters, in the "Weekly Herald," dated the 17th of July. These we lay before our readers as they appear:—

MR. BONWICK'S BOOK ON PORT PHILIP.

Comments and Remarks on "The Discovery and Settlement of Port Philip," compiled by Mr. Bonwick; and Refutations of many of the Errors that have crept into that work, by reason of mis-information given to that writer by some one or more incompetent relators of events.

from Bonwick's Port Philip, p. 82:—"But What has been done for Batman, the originator and leader of the movement?" Again, same page:—"As it is undeniable that to John Batman's enterprise we owe the settlement of this wonderful colony, is it grateful, is it just, to disregard the memory of his services, and leave his very grave unnoticed?"—and closes by adding—"Justice to Batman."

If Batman did talk, and, with the aid of Mr. J. H. Wedge and Mr. J. T. Gellibrand, did write, about coming to Port Philip, I have a prior claim; for I was a resident and a cultivator on this harbour's banks in 1803: and I did settle down, and had already in cultivation a garden and orchard, and five acres of wheat growing, before Mr. Batman saw the Yarra, as Mr. Wedge in part