It appears, however, when you are
there, that there is a great harbour, about forty miles long,
surrounded with splendid pastures, which stretch west further than any
man has been yet. Take it all in all, I should say it was the best
watered, and most available piece of country yet discovered in New
Holland."
"Any good rivers?" asked the Dean.
"Plenty of small ones, only one of any size, apparently, which seems to
rise somewhere in this direction, and goes in at the head of the bay.
They tried years ago to form a settlement on this bay, but Collins, the
man entrusted with it, could find no fresh water, which seems strange,
as there is, according to all accounts, a fine full-flowing river
running by the town."
"They have formed a town there, then?" said the Dean.
"There are a few wooden houses gone up by the river side. I believe
they are going to make a town there, and call it Melbourne; we may live
to see it a thriving place."
The Major has lived to see his words fulfilled--fulfilled in such
marvellous sort, that bald bare statistics read like the wildest
romance. At the time he spoke, twenty-two years ago from this present
year 1858, the Yarra rolled its clear waters to the sea through the
unbroken solitude of a primeval forest, as yet unseen by the eye of a
white man.
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