The Arizona sentinel. [volume] (Arizona City [Yuma], Yuma County, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1872-1911, 1885-11-14
ELBOURNE.
The Early Days of a Magnificent and Mar
velous Town.

The Early Days of a Magnificent and Mar
velous Town.
Three decades are an immense period
in the history of such city as Mel
bourne; and it is far from improbable
that the market value of town lots"
has increased in something like cubic
ratio within the last thirty years. Most
marvellous of all, perhaps, is it to reflect
that not only the site of Melbourne and
its suburbs, but an immense tract of
the surrounding country, was once
within an ace OF being sold, clock,
stock and BARREL for, metaphorically
speaking, al old song. l allude to The
famous Merry Creek treaty. At the
I beginning of June, 1885, Mr.. Batman
assembled the Yarra and Saltwater
Rivers, and few days afterward he in
duced certain aboriginal chiefs named
Jaga Jaga, Cooloolock, Bungaree, Yam
Yam and MOvuhip, to execute formal
deed of assignment, conveying to him
and his heirs forever an area of between
600. 000 and 100000 acres of land,
which would have comprised the sites
of the cities of Melbourne, Geelong
and Collingwood, the towns of Emer-
aid Hill and st. Hilda, and the bor-
ough of Sandridge, the consideration
given for this tremendous cession be ng
20 pairs of blankets, so knives, y
tom&hawEs. 10 looking-glasses, IL
pars f scissors, so handerchiefs, s12
red shirt flannel jackets, su is Of
C OF es and fifty pounds of flour. Well,
business is bushes. Did not William
Penn have his treaty with the Indians.
and how many thousands of pounds ster-
ling has MT the British taxpayer had
to pay 10 the descendants of the Penn
amily as compensation TO the loss of
Their e 'ritorial rights in Pennsylvania?
The worth of any thing is just so much
IS it will bring, and bush land about
the Yarra district was probably not
worth much in 1885. 1t IS true that
j hn Batman might have thrown in a
few bottles Of rum for luck. Governor
Bourke, how, Yer, was hard-hearted
enough to declare the whole ARA ge-
ment with Jaga Jaga and his friends to
be null and void, although a solatium
OF some 1900 was afterward granted
to Batman and his partners.
But it was the gold-fever year-1851
that made Melbourne marvellous. I
CHANGED the other day in the inn parlor
at little township In Victoria, called
Wangaratta. to light on a rude litho-
graph depicting the arrival of the first
gold escort from the diggings at the
Government building in William street,
in 1852. The gold has been brought
down in huge chests, three of which
form a load, to dray drawn by long
string of bullocks. There is an escort
of troopers, armed to the teeth, for in
the early mining days attempts on the
part of bushrangers to ''stick up" or
rob the gold escorts were frequent.
Young as were the days of mining in
1851, you see in the picture John China
man, already about and as busy as a
bee, The letterpress at the bottom of
it tells you that the people looking frora
the windows of the blue-stone building
IN William street are the clerks and
craftsmen employed in the office
OF the inexperienced, and that
on the day following the arrival of the
gold escort these gentlemen all threw
up their appointments under Govern
ment and were off to the diggings. The
crews of ships at Willamstown and
Polt Melbourne used to act in precisely
the same manner. They would desert
en- masse. Those were the days of al
luvial deposits. of big nuggets looking