Page:ChroniclesofEarlyMelbournevol.2.pdf/190

W o m m a i and Billy. T h e Doctor takes with himfiftyfat bullocks, twenty mules, and six horses, with a very complete equipment for his adventurous journey. H e . purposes to follow the Cogoon to the Victoria River, pursuing Sir T h o m a s Mitchell's outward track to a certain distance, where he will bear off, in order to ascertain the Northern waters ; having accomplished this he will then take the most practicable direct route to Swan River. T h e whole party appear to be in excellent health and spirits, though w e regret to learn that the worthy leader suffers occasionally from palpitation of the heart." In connection with this subject, I have before m e a supplement to the Port Phillip Herald, issued 2nd June, 1846. T h e centre-piece is a faithful and well-executed likeness of Leichardt, drawn on stone by Joseph Pittman, and lithographed by T h o m a s H a m , two well k n o w n Melbourne artists of the period. A s frame-work to the picture four poetical Leichardtian effusions (two from Sydney and two from Melbourne) are presented, encased in a typographical border, creditable to the mechanical taste of Mr. William Clarke, a once Herald overseer, widely and deservedly esteemed. O n e of the contributions should possess a special interest for Victorian readers of every age, as it was from the pen of Sir William A'Beckett, the fourth Resident Judge of Port Phillip, and thefirstChief Justice of our Supreme Court. Sir William, as stated in another chapter, was wont to indulge in occasional dalliance with the Muses, and the Herald was the m e d i u m selected for communicating with the public. For obvious reasons he adopted a nom de plume, but the anonymity was by some means penetrated by the Argus, in its infancy petulantly hostile to the Judge, with or without reason; and that journal, in afitof temper one morning, disclosed the alias, and the votary of the " Tuneful N i n e " tuned in print no more. A s the secret was thus dissolved it can be no breach of faith on m y part to refer nominally to the authorship after the lapse of so many years. T h e p o e m also appears to well merit exhumation, and I, therefore, trust to be excused for reproducing it as under: — LEICHARDT'S RETURN. A n d Leichardt is returned again—the good m a n and the brave, Safe from the unknown wilderness, w e deemed had been his grave ; For not long had he gone from us, before dark rumours spread, That made us all but think of him, as one among the dead ; And, though such tidings, afterwards, by anxious friends were brought, A s shed a light, in sanguine minds, upon that mournful thought, Most of us feared those friends had found his latest earthly track, Or that he had but further roamed to never more come back! False were our fears—he is come back—come back triumphant too : Though this w e will not ask of yet—'twere selfish so to do ; W e will not stop to ask him now, what for us he hath won, Nor coldly pause to weigh the worth of all that he hath done. 'Tis joy enough to look on him ; yet, what if he had failed ? Should his return amongst us be with colder feelings hailed ? No, Heaven forbid, such high attempts, because without success, Should make us for a moment prize the brave who's made them, less! Then honour unto Leichardt now, the man and not his deed, Tho' that shall have its due reward, when he hath had his meed. A welcome let us give him, which nor he nor we'll forget, A welcome such as, on these shores, none other hath had 'yet • A "monster meeting" let us have, where all m a y crowd around, A n d " hero-worship" find its vent in one commingled sound; The green earth for our altar-place, the blue sky for our dome, W h y greet him elsewhere who, so long, hath known no other h o m e ? His mission was not to destroy, nor comes he back to tell Of fields, in which, though nobly won, our best and bravest fell , Far higher conquests his than these-and well he knew his G o d Would watch him all along the way his trusting footsteps trod.