In one sense it was providential that the Colonel condemned the place, otherwise the record of the origin of Victoria, as a colony, would not have been very edifying. One of the principal reasons given by Collins for deserting the settlement was “want of water,” but wells, dug by the members of the expedition, still exist to prove how easily water could have been obtained. Other proofs are not lacking to show that the gallant Colonel must have had other reasons than the ones he gave for taking his departure. For instance, Mrs. Hopley, wife of one of the officers of the expedition, according to Rusden’s “Discovery and Settlement of Port Phillip,” wrote to her friends in England, thus—“My pen is not able to describe half the beauties of that delightful spot. We were four months there. Much to my mortification, as well as loss, we were obliged to abandon the settlement through the whim and caprice of the lieutenant governor. Additional expense to the government and loss to individuals were incurred by removing to Van Dieman’s land. Port Phillip is my favorite and has my warmest wishes. During the time we were there (Sorrento), I never felt one ache, or pain, and I parted with the place with more regret than I did my native land.” Further, one of the officers wrote—“It was one of the most healthy and enjoyable spots that it has been my good fortune to find in the course of my travels. Why it should have been abandoned is a mystery. Climate, prospect, and every natural advantage were in its favor, and water was to have been obtained in abundance if there had been any desire to have found it.” Amongst the members of the Collins party were two men who afterwards became famous though their stations in life were widely apart. One was William Buckley—a convict who made his escape and lived for 32 years amongst the native blacks as “the wild white man,”—and the other was the late Hon. John Pascoe Fawkner—then a boy in charge of his parents—who had an excellent claim to be considered the founder of Victoria, and was beyond all doubt the founder of the City of Melbourne. At the rear of Sorrento, across a narrow neck of land about a mile and a quarter wide, lies the Ocean Beach—or as landsmen love to call it, the “Back Beach,”—where the ever surging South Pacific rolls in its mighty waves on to a bleak and barren shore, which embraces a stretch of coast line extending from Cape Schanck to Port Phillip Heads, a distance of about 20 miles. The fore-shore, or rocky beach, is here flanked by a sort of amphitheatre of high cliffs, from whence a magnificent view seaward can be obtained, and, when a strong southerly wind is blowing, the commotion of the waters, as seen from this vantage ground, forms a remarkably imposing picture. Here one can gaze on what Tennyson describes as “The long wash of Australasian Seas.” Now, with sullen roar, racing swiftly along, now leaping high over the outlying reefs, then dashing