THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT GOVERNMENT 163 



Otway Eanges has been allotted to poor Gellibrand, and more than 

 one skull has been sent over to Tasmania for identification by some 

 dental irregularity. It is quite as probable that they died of starva- 

 tion as that they were murdered, but the latter supposition was 

 readily adopted by the Tasmanian settlers, who had been used to 

 conflict with a much more aggressive and warlike race of natives. 

 The supposition added a new terror to the interior, and hence the 

 pioneers formed themselves into stronger parties for mutual protec- 

 tion as they pushed inland, and too many of them learned to be as 

 free in the use of their gun on a blackfellow as on a kangaroo. 



The untimely death of Gellibrand was a great loss to the 

 Association, of which he was unquestionably the ablest and most 

 prominent member. It cast a gloom over the settlement, which 

 even damped the ardour of the preparations for the Governor's 

 visit. 



But that long-anticipated event, from which so much was ex- 

 pected, came off at last. On the 4th of March, 1837, H.M.S. Rattle- 

 snake, still under the command of Captain Hobson, anchored once 

 more off the mouth of the Yarra, having on board His Excellency 

 Sir Eichard Bourke, who, though in his sixtieth year when he first 

 viewed the nameless collection of mud huts on the banks of the 

 Yarra, lived to see it the Metropolis of an independent colony, and 

 one of the most important cities in the British Colonial Empire. 

 He had with him, as a travelling companion, Captain P. P. King, 

 a son of the third Governor of New South Wales ; Captain Hunter, 

 his military secretary and aide-de-camp ; his private secretary, Mr. 

 G. K. Holden ; and Mr. Robert Hoddle, who was to take official 

 charge as Surveyor-General of the new district. 



Everything that would float was pressed into the service of the 

 settlers to give eclat to the Governor's landing, and as the man-of- 

 war's barge bore him in state up the then translucent waters of the 

 Yarra, a perfect flotilla of whale-boats, skiffs, canoes and dugouts 

 lent importance if not dignity to the procession, and bore evidence 

 of the general interest felt in the event. As they swept past the 

 overhanging fringe of ti-tree, and came in view of the little clearing 

 where the shabby huts of the settlement were clustered, the dull 



green of the umbrageous surroundings was seen to be flecked with 



11* 



