80 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



labourers for the vineyard. During the month much hard work 

 had been got through ; building, fencing and planting had pro- 

 gressed rapidly, the buds of vines and fruit-trees were beginning to 

 swell, and the kitchen garden gave promise of favours to come. 

 But while attending to the requirements of their home comfort on 

 shore, they did not neglect arrangements for the pursuit of the 

 recognised and already well-established industry of the place 

 whaling. 



As soon as the summer season was over, Mr. Francis Henty 

 crossed again to Launceston, to secure additional capital and ma- 

 terial for developing that profitable trade, and he found the town in 

 a ferment over the projected expedition of Batman to Port Phillip. 

 Having completed his arrangements, he started back to Portland in 

 October, 1835, and the sloop in which he was a passenger called in 

 at Port Phillip to land some stock at the Indented Heads. Accord- 

 ing to Mr. Stephen Henty's narrative as supplied to Governor 

 Latrobe, his brother Frank on this occasion fell in with some of 

 Batman's party, who were waiting a chance of getting farther up 

 the bay, and proceeded with them to the Yarra, where he remained a 

 fortnight, a witness of the incubation of the settlement hereafter 

 to be called Melbourne, then the unnamed arena of the bloodless 

 battles of the rival factions represented by Batman and Fawkner. 

 He then pursued his voyage, and reached Portland once more about 

 the middle of November. Meanwhile, word had gone round to the 

 Swan Eiver that the Henty s had found a place of sojourn, and 

 Stephen was glad to quit the dreary solitudes of that apparently 

 unfruitful and utterly collapsed locality, and to throw in his lot 

 with his brothers at Portland. Passenger ships were few and far 

 between in those days, so he purchased a small craft of sixty tons, 

 called the Sally Ann, and as the captain was unfortunately 

 drowned by the upsetting of a boat in King George's Sound, he had 

 to undertake the navigation himself, with only such knowledge of 

 it as an intelligent and observant layman may pick up on a long 

 sea voyage. At any rate, he had sufficient confidence in himself to 

 become responsible for the safety of his newly married wife and 

 their small crew. The result justified his self-reliance, though he 

 did overshoot his mark, and mistaking Cape Otway for Cape North- 



