104 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



ately after the return ; but this latter document bears evidence of 

 a more polished style, and was probably drawn up by Gellibrand, 

 many of the incidents recorded in the journal being recast to 

 give emphasis to ulterior views. In the matter of dates the journal 

 throughout is in wide divergence with that afterwards published 

 by Robert Robson, the mate of the Rebecca, which purported to 

 be abstracted from the ship's logs. There is, however, collateral 

 evidence to prove Robson's dates to be entirely erroneous, for he 

 fixes the 9th of July as the day of the Rebecca's return to Launces- 

 ton ; whereas the Governor's acknowledgment of Batman's report 

 of his proceedings is dated on the 3rd of that month. 



Without accepting Mr. Fawkner's insinuations that the bulk 

 of the journal was fictitious, and the story of the treaty with the 

 natives an amusing travesty, it may be readily admitted that the 

 record is not drawn up with the exactitude which a paper, say, for 

 the Royal Geographical Society might be expected to possess. But, 

 malgre a general looseness of description, and some vagueness, 

 natural to a man who, though an authority on bushcraft, was not 

 a scientific explorer, it contains substantially an honest recital of 

 what Batman saw, and the impression he committed to paper, if 

 not on the same day, at least while the incidents were fresh in his 

 memory. Checking the journal with the correspondence with his 

 colleagues in the Association, the reported conversations with Mr. 

 Wedge and others, and the touched-up report to the Governor, it 

 is possible to construct a fairly accurate account of this dark age 

 of Victorian history. 



The " Plymouth Rock " of Victorian colonisation must be sought 

 for on the beach near Indented Head, where the Rebecca anchored 

 on the first day of her arrival. Batman, eager to inspect the pro- 

 mised land, at once went on shore with the captain, accompanied 

 by his black attendants, and was speedily lost in admiration of the 

 possibilities of such a splendid sheep country, covered with waving 

 grass like a field of young wheat. The description of the soil and 

 the pasturage are all in the superlative degree : "As rich land 

 as ever I saw in my life, with scarce a tree on it," and similar 

 emphatic statements occur on every page of the diary. He over- 

 looked the district where now Portarlington, Bellarine and Drysdale 



