In January, 1851, some buoys were sent to Port Albert and laid down in the channel.  The account for the work was duly sent to the chief harbour master at Williamstown, but he took no notice of it, nor made any reply to several letters requesting payment.  There was something wrong at headquarters, and Davy resolved to see for himself what it was.  Moreover, he had not seen Melbourne for ten years, and he yearned for a change.  So, without asking leave of anyone, he left Port Albert and its shipping “to the sweet little cherub that sits up aloft, and takes care of the life of Poor Jack,” and went in his boat to Yanakie Landing.  Mrs. Bennison lent him a pony, and told him to steer for two bald hills on the Hoddle Ranges; he could not see the hills for the fog, and kept too much to port, but at last he found a track.  He camped out that night, and next morning had breakfast at Hobson’s Station.  He stayed one night at Kilcunda, and another at Lyle’s station, near the bay.  He then followed a track which Septimus Martin had cut through the tea-tree, and his pony became lame by treading on the sharp stumps, so that he had to push it or drag it along until he arrived at Dandenong, where he left it at an inn kept by a man named Hooks.  He hired a horse from Hooks at five shillings a day.  The only house between Dandenong and Melbourne was once called the South Yarra Pound, kept by Mrs. Atkinson.  It was near Caulfield, on the Melbourne side of “No-good-damper swamp.”  Some blackfellows had been poisoned there by a settler who wanted to get rid of them.  He gave them a damper with arsenic in it, and when dying they said, “No good, damper.”

Davy landed in Melbourne on June 17th, 1851, put his horse in Kirk’s bazaar, and stayed at the Queen’s Head in Queen Street, where Sir William Clarke’s office is now.  The landlady was Mrs. Coulson, a widow.  Next morning he was at the wharf before daylight, and went down the Yarra in the first steamer for Williamstown.  He found that Captain Bunbury, the chief harbour-master, had gone away in the buoy-boat, a small schooner called the ‘Apollo’, so he hired a whale-boat, and overtook the schooner off the Red Bluff.  When he went on board he spoke to Ruffles, master of the schooner, and said: 

“Is the harbour-master aboard?  I want to see him.”

“Yes, but don’t speak so loud, or you’ll wake him up,” replied Ruffles.  “He is asleep down below.”

Davy roared out, “I want to wake him up.  I have come two hundred miles on purpose to do it.  I want to get a settlement about those buoys at Port Albert.  I am tired of writing about them.”

This woke up Bunbury, who sang out: 

“What’s the matter, Ruffles?  What’s all that noise about?”

“It’s the pilot from Port Albert.  He wants to see you, sir, about the buoys.”

“Tell him to come down below.”  Davy went.

Bunbury was a one-armed naval lieutenant, the head of the harbour department, and drew the salary.  He had subordinate officers.  A clerk at Williamstown did his clerical work, and old Ruffles navigated the ‘Apollo’ for him through the roaring waters of Port Philip Bay, while he lay in his bunk meditating on something.  He said: