Gum Trees near Melbourne.
carpetted the shores almost to the water's edge; and in the same year other flockowners from Van Diemen's Land crossed the straits to Port Phillip.
Already the Tasmanians had found the pastures of their island, covered as the greater portion of it is by inaccessible mountains and forests of gigantic timber, too limited for the annual increase of their flocks. The reports of the pastoral resources of the opposite shore became a constant subject for discussion; and in April, 1835, a party of settlers formed themselves into an association,[1] for the purpose of taking possession of an estate in Port Phillip; but before they could execute their project Mr. John Batman, a blacksmith, born in New South Wales, but then visiting Van Diemen's Land, secretly set sail from Launceston, accompanied by a party of tame blacks from the neighbourhood of Sydney, landed in the middle of May, and, through his native interpreter, entered into an arrangement with the Port Phillip aborigines for the purchase of some of their land; returned to Van Diemen's Land, and, again crossing the straits with a store of goods, induced the savages to put their marks to a deed prepared by a Tasmanian lawyer, which purported to transfer a large tract of land, altogether about half a million acres, in consideration of certain blankets and tomahawks. This transaction, like all similar purchases from hunting tribes, was mere child's play. The aborigines of Australia have no idea of cultivation, and consequently no idea of possession of land or anything else. They accepted Batman's blankets, tobacco,
- ↑ The association consisted of Messrs. S. and N. Jackson, Fawkner, Marr, Evans, and Lancy.
