102 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



from the fact of his nephew, Mr. Henry Arthur, being one of the 

 association formed in 1834 to make the experiment and risk the 

 after consequences. 



The syndicate received a stimulus to action about this time from 

 two sources ; one was the publication of the full narrative of Hume 

 and HovelTs discoveries, and the other the fact that in despite of 

 Government discouragement, almost amounting to prohibition, the 

 Henty family had taken action and were already in possession at 

 Portland Bay. The Association of which Batman and Gellibrand 

 were the moving spirits chafed under the rebuffs which they met 

 with from the authorities, and being all men of fair position and 

 good resources, determined, on their own responsibility, to turn to 

 some practical advantage the discoveries which Hume and Sturt and 

 Mitchell had made at such laborious cost. There were fifteen of 

 them in all, and several of their names are prominently associated 

 with the early days of Melbourne. They were John Batman, 

 J. T. Gellibrand, C. Swanston, W. G. Sams, J. and W. Kobertson, 

 James Simpson, Thomas Bannister, John T. Collicott, Henry 

 Arthur, M. Connolly, John Sinclair, John Helder Wedge, Anthony 

 Cotterill and George Mercer. Out of deference to intercolonial 

 jealousies, and to the restlessness of the Tasmanian settlers, which 

 the legends of the fertile plains across the Straits had awakened, 

 the Association did not desire to attract much attention to their 

 movements or their destination, so they refrained from any public 

 act of incorporation. Indeed, to all intents and purposes, they were 

 a mere private partnership, not even defining their position by a 

 deed amongst themselves until after Batman's return from Port 

 Phillip. 



It was determined that whatever power had hereafter to be 

 recognised as entitled to dominion over the soil, the rights of the 

 aborigines should be strictly respected ; and it was assumed that a 

 public acknowledgment of this apparently equitable course would 

 at least strengthen their claims in popular estimation, if it came to 

 a contest with the Crown, or its local representatives. Thus, when 

 the arrangements had been completed for the preliminary inspection, 

 the legal mind of Mr. Gellibrand provided for anticipated cavil by 

 drawing up deeds of conveyance for execution by the native vendors, 



