APPENDIX.
INCIDENTS OCCURRING DURING THE PREPARATION OF "THE CHRONICLES."
SYNOPSIS:— Early Inspirations. —Dream-land Resolutions. —Personal Likes and Dislikes. —Reasons for a Nom-de-plume. —Conflicting Opinions of Critics. —Gratuitous "Story-tellers." —Hunting for a Gaol. —Rival Quasi-Authors. —Interviews with Mr. J. B. Were. —The Terminus within Sight. —De Mortuis Nil Nisi Justum. —Warning and Threatening Letters. —Sir John O'Shanassy's Prophecy. -Another Threatening Letter. —The Author's Life in Danger. —Rehearsal of an Unrecorded Intrigue. —"Garryowen" Fabled. —Origin of Nom-de-plume. —Lyrics and "Lie-rics." —National Panegyric.
AS a befitting sequel to the lengthened series of sketches recently concluded, it occurs to me that I could not do better than string together as an appendix several amusing incidents which occurred whilst I was engaged in their compilation, facts as droll and laughable as any of the hoary-headed events it was my duty to record.
Starting from the period when the coast of Gippsland was first descried from a discovery ship, the tree-bole or trunk of these Chronicles was to be constructed of the incidents occurring up to 1840, when Civil Government seemed to be firmly established, and Public Departments, Religious Communities, and Charitable and other Institutions began to take root and germinate. Each of those, as it showed itself, was to be treated as if a branch of the tree, until it either died off or stretched over the boundary line of 1851, when the province of Port Phillip ceased, and the colony of Victoria was created. After I had made a rough draft of my plan, started with the specifications, and commenced taking out the quantities, it slowly dawned upon my mind that I had undertaken a work of a much more pretentious, difficult, and lengthened nature than I had imagined; and for some days I had a strong notion of what in legal phraseology is termed "returning my brief." Though for thirteen years a general utility hand on the Herald, my strong points were sub-editing and miscellaneous news-mongering. I never credited myself with an aptitude for continuous writing, and I entertained considerable doubts as to my capacity to tackle such a job as my mind's eye glanced over, assuming the work to be turned out in a manner commensurate with its undoubted importance. In a condition of extreme mental disquietude I remained for some days, when one night I sat up late, and after two or three hours' anxious pondering over the vexed question whether to retreat or advance, I retired to bed, and was almost instantaneously a captive in the arms of Somnus. Towards morning, however, when the more reliable dreams are popularly supposed to be inspired, Morpheus must have appeared on the scene, for an apparition gazed upon me from above, in which I recognized the bust of the once well-known Father Geoghegan, pioneer priest of Port Phillip—the Soggarth Aroon of its early Catholicity. It seemed a life-like photograph of the man as I first beheld him in July, 1841, standing at the door of his cottage, on the St. Francis Church Reserve, Lonsdale Street. As I was about to speak the lips of the mysterious visitant moved, and the following words were impressively enunciated:— "My dear old friend, you have been requested, and you have promised to perform, a certain work. You are wavering about doing so. If not done by you, no one else can efficiently do it. The history of Early Melbourne should not remain unwritten. Be sure you do not leave it undone. Farewell." I was about to offer some reply, when the kindly and thoughtful face receded a little, the vision vanished, and I awoke with a start. In the course of the morning, whilst I was looking through an old note-book, I was struck by the remarkable coincidence that the day (15th May) corresponded exactly with the date of Father Geohegan's
