THE SETTLEMENT OF PORTLAND BAY 79 



Launceston with the announcement that he had determined on 

 Portland Bay as the most promising site for a settlement he had 

 yet visited. But the father, hoping against hope, could not bring 

 himself to abandon his 80,000 acres at Swan Eiver without one 

 more effort, if not to utilise it himself, at least to get something in 

 exchange for it. His son Stephen was still there winding up the 

 Western Australian venture, and trying to realise on the debris ; so 

 the veteran pioneer, then nearly seventy years of age, persuaded 

 his son Edward to defer his final decision until he should have 

 looked upon the place that had swallowed up so much of his 

 capital. Accordingly the father and son sailed westward in the 

 Thistle, calling at Kangaroo Island, landing in Spencer's Gulf and 

 some promising looking bays along the coast, and finally reached 

 Swan Eiver, where they were soon satisfied of the reliability of all 

 the unfavourable reports which had reached them. On the return 

 voyage the attractions of Portland Bay again lured them ashore, 

 and a brief survey convinced Mr. Henty that his son had made 

 an excellent choice. They returned to Launceston, and, having 

 engaged the Thistle for a long charter, proceeded to load her up 

 with provisions, building materials, agricultural implements, live 

 stock and the household necessaries that were to convert the dimly 

 apprehended wilderness into a veritable and permanent home. At 

 eight o'clock in the morning of the 19th of November, 1834, after a 

 tedious and stormy passage, the anchor of the Thistle plashed in 

 the waters of Portland Bay, and Mr. Edward Henty relates, with 

 pardonable pride, that by one o'clock he had safely landed thirteen 

 heifers, four working bullocks, five pigs, two turkeys, two guinea- 

 fowls, six dogs, a plough, a complete outfit of seeds, plants and 

 cuttings, a fishing boat with a seine net, four men-servants and a 

 friend. He pitched his tent on a pleasant green flat between the 

 two jetties, he found fresh water by digging, and he commenced 

 his colonising career with the appurtenances of a substantial capi- 

 talist, though in the eyes of the Government he was a contumacious 

 trespasser. Meanwhile, the Thistle went to and fro. Within a 

 month she was back again with stores of provisions, some sixteen 

 head of cattle, about eighty well-bred sheep and a variety of 

 poultry. With them, too, came Mr. Francis Henty and some more 



