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61 favourable report of the country. Possibly, then, the two gentlemen have not always been on terms of affectionate amity. Mr. Wedge’s letter to the writer is dated from Leighland, near Perth (V. D. L.) Feb, 23rd, 1856. After some private remarks he writes thus :— “ I believe an incorrect version has obtained in the minds of some as to the person who first originated the scheme, and took possession of the country. I can have no hesitation in saying that the idea first originated with the late Mr. John Batman and myself. So early as the year 1825, on the occasion of my surveying and marking off his grant of land at Kingstown on the Ben Lomond Rivulet, we projected an exploring expedition into the interior of Australia ; and we rarely, if ever, met afterwards without renewing the subject, and strengthening our belief in the feasibility of the scheme ; and so in earnest were we on the subject, that Mr. Batman jointly with Mr. Gellibrand, to whom he had communicated his views, addressed a letter to the colonial government of New South Wales, asking permission to occupy land at Port Phillip, on condition of their sending to that place stock to the value of <£5000. And I subsequently, somewhere about the year 1833, on the occasion of Sir George Arthur’s visiting the east coast, volunteered to conduct an expedition across Australia, commencing at the Gulf of Carpentaria. Lieut. Darling and Mr. Batman, who were of the party, offered to join me in the undertaking.” This proposition, after a year’s delay was ultimately given up, Mr. Wedge resumes : “ Mr. Batman and myself then fell back upon our original scheme, and determined to carry it out as a private enter-, prize. Soon after this Mr. Batman communicated the project to the late Mr. Gellibrand, Capt. Swanston and others, who took the matter up warmly, and joined in an association for carrying it out, The plan Mr. Batman and myself ha^. first arranged, founded on information we had obtained from parties who had been there, was to land at Portland Bay, and to examine the interior from thence ; but we were induced to abandon this idea from fresh information obtained by Mr. Batman in reference to the country around Port Phillip, about the begining of May. “ He landed, and traversed the country hastily in the vicinity of Sta tion Peak, where he fell in with some natives. He afterwards explored up the banks of the Salt Water River, from thence to the eastward to the bead of the Moona Ponds ; proceeding north and north east from
