76 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



days of anxious waiting the last ounce of flour was served out, and 

 they felt that without some outside succour the end must come. 

 On the seventh day the men returned, having found Harris with 

 the drays and relief stores. They brought horses and some provi- 

 sions in the dray, and in a few hours the crisis was past. The 

 explorers were literally snatched out of the jaws of death, and 

 about a month later they re-entered Sydney after one of the most 

 trying expeditions recorded in the annals of Australian exploration. 



Even at the time when Captain Sturt was wrestling with 

 the difficulties of unknown river navigation, two or three small 

 schooners, mostly built in the yards of the Griffiths in Launceston, 

 were cruising about the southern coast of Victoria, catching whales 

 when the season was on; hunting seals on the rocky islets, or 

 buying their skins and occasional kangaroo hides from the half- 

 wild trappers infesting some of the secluded bays, whose advent 

 would often be found to be coincident with the disappearance 

 of some of the missing convicts. Amongst the hardy mariners 

 who initiated this trade were William Dutton and John Griffiths, 

 both natives of New South Wales, but living in Launceston, and 

 the brothers John and Charles Mills, both born in Launceston. 

 Captain John Mills lived for many years to preside officially over 

 the coast he was one of the first to visit, for until a comparatively 

 recent date he was harbourmaster at Port Fairy, under the 

 Victorian Government. 



Mr. William Dutton had so strong a conviction of the profitable 

 business to be done in whaling, that he determined to form a depot 

 on the coast, where he might carry on his operations unmolested, 

 adjacent to the catching-ground. He had for a year or two been 

 an occasional sojourner on these coasts, and probably had no in- 

 tention of being a pioneer settler, whose lead was to be followed 

 by an intrusive multitude. Doubtless he kept his destination 

 pretty much to himself, and in the selection was actuated more 

 by commercial than by colonising instincts. Nevertheless, he 

 became, by chance, the first permanent settler within the confines 

 of the colony of Victoria, for in 1832 he was already established 

 in his whaling station, at Portland Bay, and had built a decent 

 cottage for himself and rough huts for his men, of whom there 



