Poor Mackinnon, as
he afterwards laughingly pleaded, what could he do under the cold douche
of such a wet blanket? He made the smallest and quietest speech of his
life upon a great and stirring subject.
SOME INTERJECTA IN RE BATMAN, PIONEER OF THE PORT PHILLIP SETTLEMENT.
Mr. Edward Henty, from Launceston, first entered the future Victoria in
1834 by her remote portal, Portland Bay, and thus became the founder of
the colony. In the following year, John Batman, of Hobart, sailing from
the same stirring little Launceston, entered by the central and grander
portal of the Port Phillip Heads, and was thus the pioneer of Port
Phillip settlement; for we must really turn blundering Collins, with his
abortive doings in 1803-4, out of the running. I never saw Batman, as he
died the year before my arrival, so that, according to my rule, I have
nothing to say of him. But I must mention an incident occurring shortly
before my date, and characteristic of the times, namely, the raffling
for Batman's old and well smoke-begrimed pipe. This was at the famous
Lamb Inn, a little wooden edifice on the north side of West
Collins-street, opposite the Market-square, and fronting a small cliff
which the street levelling there had left for future disposal.
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