118 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



and he was in full command of the hostelry when Batman returned 

 from Port Phillip. 



Riotous and aggressive as he delighted to appear, there is much 

 to be said in favour of the cause he championed. There is no doubt 

 that the monopoly of all Government positions by a few officials, 

 the offensive contumely with which they treated those in any way 

 descended from or connected with the convict element, and the 

 contemptuous ignoring of the rights of free immigrant settlers, kept 

 the great bulk of the community in a state of simmering indignation. 

 But the fight was a hopeless one from the beginning, and Fawkner, 

 in common with scores of his restless fellow-colonists, longed to 

 get away from the arena of petty despotism to a place where they 

 could hope to have some part in building up a freer community. 

 Over the Strait lay a country where nature had done much to 

 smooth the way for great social and political experiments. Vague 

 reports from sealers and adventurers ripened into fuller accounts 

 from explorers and observant travellers. The Henty family had 

 gone, and were said to be prospering even though in unauthorised 

 possession. Early in 1835, according to Fawkner's own statement 

 published in the Diggers' Advocate in 1853, he arranged in his 

 own mind a plan of colonisation, in which he invited five of his 

 acquaintances to take part. He always speaks of this party as an 

 organisation of his own, the first step in the development of a care- 

 fully matured scheme ; but on behalf of three at least out of the five 

 the notion of a joint adventure has been publicly repudiated. The 

 fact is that Fawkner, by the subdivision and sale of his property 

 known as the Launceston Orchard, comprising some seven acres in 

 Brisbane Street, was enabled to raise a considerable sum of money, 

 which he invested partly in the purchase of a small vessel and the 

 necessary stores and outfit. His colleagues, whose names were 

 John Lancey, a master mariner, Samuel and William Jackson, and 

 Robert Hay Marr, carpenters and builders, and George Evans, a 

 plasterer, paid their own passage at the rate of seven pounds per 

 head, and looked after their own interests when they arrived. So far 

 from following Fawkner's lead, or placing themselves in any way 

 under his control, they merely availed themselves of the conve- 

 nience he offered them, for due payment, and, with the exception of 



