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PORT PHILIP.
His Excellency the Governor may be
daily expected from this settlement. We
learn that he was any thing but satisfied
with the locality of the place, and the
country generally. An immense quan-
tity of scabby sheep had been sent
over from Launceston and Hobart Town.
The Monitor states that Sir Richard
"had been received with the most
marked demonstrations of respect, and
even personal regard." We do not at all
wonder at our contemporary duly recording
the fact, such a circumstance, so very
unusual to his Excellency in this colony,
must have been highly gratifying to him in
that. We are indebted to the Monitor,
for the following news of the settlement : —
We have been informed that the Gover-
nor occupied himself after his arrival at
Port Philip, with superintending the laying
out the Township, the streets of which,
from the favourable position of its scite,
will intersect each other at right angles with
uninterrupted regularity. Another Town-
ship would also be laid down before His
Excellency's departure, at a place called
Geelong, about thirty miles from the princi-
pal Township, but within the extensive basin
of Port Phillip, thereby commanding water
carriage. His Excellency proposed return-
ing by the 23d instant, on which day the
Rattlesnake would sail. Mr. Surveyor
Hoddle, would remain at Port Phillip in
charge of the Survey Department. It was
expected, that immediately after His Ex-
cellency's arrival in Sydney, town allotments
would be put up for sale. The settlers ac-
cordingly were making preparations for
building.
Considerable numbers of settlers were
continually arriving from Launceston and
Hobart Town, with their flocks and herds.
Several large portions of ground had been
broken up for the cultivation of grain, but
the settlement had been parched up from
want of rain, which had suspended cultiva-
tion. There was a general outcry for want
of labourers. His Excellency had been
received with the most marked demonstra-
tions of respect, and even personal regard.
A deputation of the early colonists waited on
him on board the Rattlesnake, ere his dis-
embarkation, to greet him on his arrival
in the new colony.
Mr. Gellibrand, junior, and other gentle-
men, had gone into the interior in quest of
his father and Mr. Hesse, who had been
absent nineteen days, and who ought to have
returned on the next after his departure but
had not returned when the cutter sailed.
The Government Gang and the Military,
were busily engaged in making preparations
for the erection of substantial dwellings for
the Commandant, and Military Garrison.
A portion of the convicts had been employed
in forming the new streets.
The settlement was in a state of tranquility ;
there had been no aggressions on the part of
the native tribes, (save the suspicion of the
murder of the above named gentlemen).
There had been no accidents among the
whites, nor any offences committed beyond
ordinary cases of drnnkennness and assaults
arising therefrom. (Note. We shall not
be surprised it Mr. G. has been murdered.
When the native blacks can be tied to trees,
and deliberately shot to death by the con-
victs, and when those convicts on being
tried, get acquited, we cannont wonder
though we deeply regret retaliation by the
natives,—ED.
The revenue cutter Prince George, which
arrived yesterday from Port Philip, brings
intelligence, that fears are entertained at
that settlement for the lives of Mr. Gelli-
brand and a gentleman belonging to Laun-
ceston, named Hesse, who had gone to a
place called Golong, a few miles in the inte-
rior, on a shooting excursion, but had not
returned when the cutter sailed, after a lapse
of nineteen days. It is conjectured that
they had either lost themselves in the bush,
and perished from want of sustenance, or
had fallen victims to the revenge of the
native tribes. H. M. S. Rattlesnake,
with his Excellency and suit, may be hourly
expected, on their return from Port Philip,
as she was to sail immediately after the
Prince George. The schooner Alexander
McLeay, which left this port for Port Philip
before the cutter, had not arrived at that
settlement up to the sailing of the latter for
Sydney, although the cutter was in that
port ten days. It is conjectured, that she
had fallen in with strong winds, and got
blown out of her track. The Regia had
not arrived. The Prince George had been
round to Western Port, laying down buoys.
In returning past Curtis Island, Bass
Straits, the attention of the commander
(Roach) was arrested by the appearance of
an immense fire on the island. He bore up
and landed. He found on the beach, a man
his wife, and three children, who stated they
were the only persons on the island. They
presented a destitute and famished appear-
ance, having subsisted for many months
past on the wild creatures of the island,
such as native cats, squirrels, and oposums.
A hut had been erected near the beach,
composed of boughs and leaves. The man
who appeared to be about forty years of
age informed Captain Roach that he had
left Sydney about three years ago in a cut-
ter called the William, belonging to Messrs.
Wright and Long, and had been left with
others on the island, for the purpose of
killing seals, but the vessel had never re-
turned for them. He could not say what
had become of his companions, nor how
they had left the island. Captain Roach,
from his manner, and the variation in, and
improbability of his story, suspected they
were both runaway convicts. They said
they had buried two children, and had three
then alive. The woman was now pregnant.
Captain Roach gave them a quantify of pro-
visions and clothing, and assured them of his
services in causing them to be relieved from
their destitute situation. The man pressed
to be taken in the cutter with his family ;
but at looking at the situation of the woman
in a day or two, Captain R. thought, that
with the assistance he had given them, she
would be better prepared to meet the
event ashore, than in the vessel, where the
accommodation was not adequate to her ne-
cessities. It is now ascertained, that Messrs.
Wright and Long never had a cutter called
the William engaged in the sealing trade.
The man evaded telling his name by in-
genious shifts, though he was pressed upon
that point.
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