THE FIRST YEAR OF THE SETTLEMENT 131 



It is not probable that a sight of the chart or a perusal of the 

 deed had any effect on the dogged Fawkner, but, according to one 

 account, he was open to another form of conviction, for he was 

 bought out for the very moderate sum of 20, and betook himself 

 to the opposite side of the Yarra, where he ploughed some eighty 

 acres, which he cultivated with considerable success. But when he 

 learned that the title of the Association was ignored by the Govern- 

 ment, he gravitated back to his old quarters, and once more posed 

 as the " father of the settlement ". 



Meanwhile the Port Phillip Association was resolving its nebu- 

 lous parts into a compact and organised body, strong enough, as 

 they vainly imagined, in purse and prestige to carry their point 

 with the representatives of the Crown. In the first place, Batman, 

 who was the transferee from the aboriginal vendors of the 600,000 

 acres, executed a deed conveying the same to Swanston, Gellibrand 

 and Simpson in trust for all the members of the partnership. Then 

 the company entered into a formal agreement amongst themselves, 

 setting forth the objects of the proposed settlement, the methods 

 of working it, and the relative interests of the parties concerned. 

 This deed, though dealing with purely supposititious rights, which 

 were never admitted, is one of the most important documents con- 

 nected with the early annals, for it sets out a scheme of colonisa- 

 tion that had been carefully considered, and, on the assumption 

 that the lands proposed to be dealt with were really lying waste 

 and unsought, had much to recommend it. The 600,000 acres 

 were parcelled out into " undivided seventeenths ". Of these, two 

 were allotted to Batman in recognition of special services, one to 

 each of the remaining members of the Association, and two that 

 remained over were put in the name of George Mercer, " in trust " 

 for future allotment. It was jocosely hinted that one of these was 

 intended as a peace-offering to the Governor of New South Wales, 

 and the other was to be displayed as a bait with which to gain the 

 favour of the British nobleman who figured as Secretary of State 

 for the Colonies. Although, of course, no such barefaced bribery 

 was contemplated, it is not unlikely that the shares were judiciously 

 reserved in the hope that Mercer, during his contemplated mission 

 to England, might be able to induce some person of political in- 



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