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others. Mereweather was impressed - with the-Club and the town, with where he-was, and
with himself.
He wrote: 'We sat down at six o'clock at a well-appointed tabie, Sighted by many wax-lights,
and we were waited upon by two menservants, one in dress livery and the other out of livery.
At night, as I lay in an excellent bed at the hotel, I couid not help making the following
reflections. Here am I, after a voyage of 13 or 14 thousand miles through the great ocean,
arrived on a vast continent, the existence of which was unknown to the world until 200 years
ago, and which was not inhabited by white men until 62 years ago. More than that, I have been
partaking of an excellent repast, served in a way which would be considered creditable in
London or Paris, in the society of educated and wealthy men, in. a portion of that continent
which was only discovered 17 or 18 years ago, and in a city which 16 years back was a savage
waste, trodden by savage men in chase of the emu and the kangaroo. In this city there are
25,000 inhabitants, surrounded by ali the necessaries and comforts of life; there are well-built
houses; shops filled with everything one can require; two churches, besides chapels; active
ministers of all demoninations; a well-managed custom house, gaol, and post office; numerous
colonial trading vessels clustering at the river quays; whilst at the mouth of the Yarra, by
Williamstown, lie at anchor fourteen or fifteen full-rigged ships. What wonderful civilising
tendencies the Anglo-Saxon race seems to have! Instruments are they of an all-wise providence
to substitute in the remote extremities of the world humanising Christianity for savage paganism,
a pure code of morals for abominable impurities, government for anarchy, peace for bloodshed,
industry for idleness, the certain fruits of agriculture for the precarious yield of the chasei An
Englishman is never content to do anything that he undertakes, by halves; he will pull all
surrounding influences up to his level; he never descends to them. It is the genius of the British
colonist to reproduce in the most distant regions, and under the most unfavourable auspices, the
minutest details of early associations, to surround himself at the antipodes with the atmosphere
of home.'
102
12. Family Gathering in Geeiong.
The presence of the Honeycombes in Geeiong and Melbourne - and they have lived in
Melbourne now for more than 150 years - was determined by many things and many people,
long before the family made any decisions of their own.
Although both towns were very new in 1852 and the land around them newly settled, Port
Phillip Bay had been known about for 50 years. Its development as a settlement and then as a
separate colony was due in no small measure to events and persons in Tasmania.
This wooded island, the size of Scotland and with a similar climate, entered European
awareness and maritime history in December 1642, when a Dutch sea-captain, Abel Tasman,
searching for a new route to South America, found an unexpected piece of land. He named it
Van Diemen's Land, in honour of the Governor-General of the Dutch East indies, Anthony Van
Diemen, and before pressing on he claimed the land for Holland.
He thought it was part of the vast unknown continent (Australia) that the Dutch had encountered
sporadically and generally accidentalty from March 1606, mainly in the north and west. They
didn't like what they saw - 'Wild, cruel savages... dark barbarous men' - The most arid and
barren region that would be found anywhere on earth.'
Cape Leeuwin, on the south-west tip of Australia, was sighted and named by the Dutch in
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