Cirrus@Austlit

Dedication: To J. Madden, Esq., L.L.D., Warden Melbourne University As An Humble Token Of Appreciation Of His Sincere And Esteemed Friendship This Canto Is Respectfully Dedicated.

Author's note: Some few months have now elapsed since I was constrained by impaired health to visit a remote district of Victoria. I there met an intellectual gentleman of ripened years, an old officer of high military standing, and a scholar, whose varied experiences in Victoria for the past twenty years were varied and instructive....from him I gathered sufficient material to induce me to write this tale, the first Canto of which is now in the hands of the reader....I have frequently seen some choice gems of Australian poetry lying for years, unnoticed, on the shelves of the bookseller, the very stamp of colonialism having sufficed to relegate them to inglorious obscurity.' pp.v-vi.