THE FOUNDING OF MELBOURNE 



113 



his face homewards, cleared the Heads at eight o'clock the same 

 evening, and two days later burst upon his friends in Launceston. 

 The story of the " Tasmanian Penn," as the Cornwall Chronicle 

 happily christened him, fanned into a flame the long pent-up 

 desire of the colonists to have a share in the distribution of 

 Australia Felix, and the manner in which the local journalists 

 drew upon their imagination in describing the unprecedented 

 beauty and fertility of a country within thirty-six hours' sail of 

 them threw the whole colony into a perfect ferment. 



Batman's journal gives the date of his return to Launceston as 

 the llth of June, but in the report furnished to the Governor he 

 quotes it as the 14th. That the journal is the more reliable is 

 proved by the fact that the first account of his trip is published 

 as an editorial in the Cornwall Chronicle of 13th June. Fourteen 

 days after Batman's return, the substance of his journal was woven 

 into a highly coloured report, with the literary assistance of Gelli- 

 brand and J. H. Wedge, and laid before Governor Arthur in 

 due official form. It was dated the 25th of June, and commenced 

 by setting forth the preliminary efforts which Batman and his 

 associates had made during the preceding eight years to obtain 

 permission to settle in the Port Phillip or Western Port districts, 

 and somewhat gratuitously assumes that the cause of their failure 

 was because the coveted land was beyond the jurisdiction of the 

 Government of New South Wales. On this assumption they had 

 concluded that it was open to them to conduct direct negotiations 

 with the natives, and by obtaining from them a grant of a portion 

 of their territory upon equitable principles to combine two desir- 

 able objects : the extension of the pastoral resources of Tasmania, 

 and the beneficial civilisation of the aborigines. The report then 

 proceeds to describe in detail the proceedings of Batman's party at 

 Port Phillip, with some variations as to dates, and with a studied 

 emphasis on the intelligence displayed by the natives in connection 

 with the celebrated " treaty ". The writers confidently trust that 

 the British Government will appreciate the importance of the said 

 treaty, will not in any way molest the arrangements made, but 

 rather give them support and encouragement to carry its objects 

 into effect. The country is described as superior to any that Bat- 

 VOL. i. 8 



