ks, and was in the habit of making dashing
excursions with a couple of troopers to take cursory views of the
country. He set out in the month of May, 1844, and was introduced to
the settlers in the following letter by "a brother squatter":

"Gentlemen, look out. The jackal of your oppressor has started on a
tour. For what purpose? To see the isolated and miserable domiciles
you occupy and the hard fare on which you subsist? No! but to see
if the oppressor can further apply the screw with success and
impunity. You have located yourselves upon lands at the risk of life
and property, paying to the Government in license and assessment fees
for protection which you have never received, and your quiesence
under such a system of robbery has stimulated your oppressor to levy
on you a still greater amount of taxation, not to advance your
interests, but to replenish his exhausted treasury. Should you
strain your impoverished exchequer to entertain your (in a family
sense) worthy superintendent, depend upon it he will recommend a
more severe application of the screw. Give him, therefore, your
ordinary fare, salt junk and damper, or scabby mutton, with a pot of
Jack the Painter's tea, in a black pot stirred with a greasy knife."

Mr. Latrobe and Sir George bore all the weight of public abuse, and
it was heavy. Now it is divided among many Ministers, each of whom
carries his share with much patience, while our Governor's days in
the "Sunny South" are "days of pleasantness, and all his paths are
peace."

No gentleman could accept hospitality like that suggested by "a
brother squatter," and Mr. Latrobe sought refuge at the Port Albert
Hotel, Glengarry's imported house. Messrs. Tyers, Raymond, McMillan,
Macalister, and Reeve were pitching quoits at the rear of the
building under the lee of the ti-tree scrub. Davy, the pilot, was
standing near on duty, looking for shipping with one eye and at the
game with the other. The gentlemen paused to watch the approaching
horsemen. Mr. Latrobe had the royal gift of remembering faces once
seen; and he soon recognised all those present, even the pilot whom
he had seen when he first arrived in Melbourne. He shook hands with
everyone, and enquired of Davy how he was getting on with the
piloting. He said: "Now gentlemen, go on with your game. I like
quoits myself and I should be sorry to interrupt you." Then he went
into the hotel and stayed there until morning. He no doubt obta