THE SETTLEMENT OF PORTLAND BAY 87 



1842, he unhesitatingly expressed his opinion that Lord Aberdeen's 

 letter contained an implied promise which justified him in over- 

 ruling former decisions on the claim, and allowing the Messrs. 

 Henty a pre-emption of such lands as came within the conditions 

 at the amount which they would then realise if still in a state of 

 nature. Long delayed as was this concession, it took nearly three 

 years more of departmental correspondence before the matter was 

 finally settled. In August, 1846, the final decision was ratified, 

 and the Messrs. Henty received some eleven acres of town land 

 at 100 an acre, and were allowed to take up about 120 acres on 

 their Wannon stations, at twice the established minimum price, 

 namely 2 per acre. A matter of 350 was awarded them for 

 improvements wrongfully sold and damage to their property, and 

 thus about 1,750 represented the vital question over which four 

 or five Ministers of State and as many Colonial Governors had 

 darkened counsel in voluminous despatches, and which left a worthy 

 family smarting under a long sense of injustice. The necessity 

 for following to its termination this huckstering episode in the 

 relations between the Government and the first Victorian settlers 

 has carried the history beyond the period of the founding of Mel- 

 bourne. Before proceeding to narrate the incidents which led up 

 to that event, it will be desirable briefly to note the discoveries 

 which were being made in the interior of the country at the time 

 when the Messrs. Henty were founding their experimental post 

 upon its southern shores. 



The glowing accounts of the pastoral capabilities of the verdant 

 plains, which had spread far and wide on the publication of Hume 

 and Hovell's discoveries, and the succeeding interest raised by the 

 account of Captain Sturt's adventures on the great water-ways 

 which gave access to the vast interior, had fanned into a flame 

 the colonising instinct of the pioneers, who were already feeling 

 cramped in the limited area of Tasmania and the recognised settled 

 districts of New South Wales. 



But the mania for taking up new country received its greatest 

 impetus from the triumphant exploration of the most fertile portion 

 of the country, the rich and well- watered western district, by Major, 

 afterwards Sir, Thomas Mitchell, then Surveyor-General of New 



