Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/538

This page has been validated.

510

OVERLAND JOURNEY TO PORT PHILLIP, 1824. RIVERS.

Bass Straits. Similar discouragements were overborne by Hume, although near Mount Disappointment he had to yield so far as to consent to turn back unless in two or three days the prospect should improve. He was rewarded.

On the 13th Dec. 1824, he descried the open land to the west of Port Phillip. The scrub through which he had been cutting his way with axes had disappeared. Open forest and downs were between him and the sea. He reached Corio, where Geelong now stands, and there learned the names of places from the natives. The name of the bay was Geelong. On the 18th Dec. he started homewards, crossing "Iramoo" downs between the Werribee and Saltwater rivers, shortening his homeward path in many places, and cheering the men by telling them when they would intersect their former tracks, and never telling them wrongly.^[1] On the return journey Hume saw a tribe of natives on the Hume, visited their camp, and was well received by them. Some of the names conferred by Hume are still extant: viz. the Ovens river; the Goulburn river, and Mount Disappointment. He called a mountain Mount Wentworth, but it has since been known as Mount Macedon, a name given to it by Sir Thomas Mitchell for the absurd reason that it would consort well with Port Phillip, named after Governor Phillip. The Hume river was long known by that name, but when Sturt saw its junction with the

↑ The details of the journey have often been published, and have been the subject of controversy between the respective friends of Hume and Hovell. When they were at Port Phillip Hovell thought they were at Western Port, but Hume contended that they were at Port Phillip. That be did not conceal his opinion on the point is proved by the fact that when in 1828-9 (before any other observer had revisited Port Phillip) he accompanied Captain Sturt to the Darling river, he repeated his coutention. Captain Sturt accordingly wrote (and his book was printed before any other visitor had been to Port Phillip): "It is uncertain whether they made Port Phillip or Western Port. Mr. Hume, whose practical experience will yield to that of no man, entertained a conviction that it was to the former they descended from the neighbouring ranges; but Mr. Hovell, I believe, supports a contrary opinion." This record is decisive as to Hume's opinion. There was much discussion, which elicited from survivors of the expedition a consensus of opinion that to Hume only its success was due, and letters to that purport were published in 1872 after a pamphlet by the author of this work on the 'Discovery, Survey, and Settlement of Port Phillip,' had called attention to the subject, and received grateful recognition from Hunie, who was not at the time personally known to him.

[1] The details of the journey have often been published, and have been the subject of controversy between the respective friends of Hume and Hovell. When they were at Port Phillip Hovell thought they were at Western Port, but Hume contended that they were at Port Phillip. That be did not conceal his opinion on the point is proved by the fact that when in 1828-9 (before any other observer had revisited Port Phillip) he accompanied Captain Sturt to the Darling river, he repeated his coutention. Captain Sturt accordingly wrote (and his book was printed before any other visitor had been to Port Phillip): "It is uncertain whether they made Port Phillip or Western Port. Mr. Hume, whose practical experience will yield to that of no man, entertained a conviction that it was to the former they descended from the neighbouring ranges; but Mr. Hovell, I believe, supports a contrary opinion." This record is decisive as to Hume's opinion. There was much discussion, which elicited from survivors of the expedition a consensus of opinion that to Hume only its success was due, and letters to that purport were published in 1872 after a pamphlet by the author of this work on the 'Discovery, Survey, and Settlement of Port Phillip,' had called attention to the subject, and received grateful recognition from Hunie, who was not at the time personally known to him.

[1]