a lawyer in Hobart, in the year 1827 asked permission
to occupy the grassy lands supposed to be round Western Port, but the
Governor in Sydney refused. In 1834 some of them resolved to go without
permission, and an association of thirteen members resolved to send
sheep over to Port Phillip, which was now known to be the more suitable
harbour.

Before they sent the sheep, they resolved to send some one to explore
and report. John Batman naturally volunteered, and the association
chartered for him a little vessel, the _Rebecca_, in which, after
nineteen days of sea-sickness and miserable tossing in the strait, he
succeeded in entering Port Phillip on the 29th of May, 1835. Next
morning he landed near Geelong and walked to the top of the Barrabool
Hills, wading most of the way through grass knee-deep. On the following
day he went in search of the aboriginals, and met a party of about
twenty women, together with a number of children. With these he soon
contrived to be on friendly terms; and after he had distributed among
them looking-glasses, blankets, handkerchiefs, apples and sugar, he left
them very well satisfied.

#5. The Yarra.# A day or two later the _Rebecca_ anchored in Hobson's Bay,
in front of the ti-tree scrub and the lonely shores where now the
streets of Williamstown extend in all directions. Batman again started
on foot to explore that river whose mouth lay there in front of him.
With fourteen men, all well armed, he passed up the river banks; but,
being on the left side, he naturally turned up that branch which is
called the Saltwater, instead of the main stream. After two days of
walking through open grassy lands, admirably suited for sheep, they
reached the site of Sunbury. From a hill at that place they could see
fires about twenty miles to the south-east; and, as they were anxious to
meet the natives, they bent their steps in that direction till they
overtook a native man, with his wife and three children. To his great
satisfaction, he learnt that these people knew of his friendly meeting
with the women in the Geelong district. They guided him to the banks of
the Merri Creek, to the place where their whole tribe was encamped. He
stayed with them all night, sleeping in a pretty grassy hollow beside
the stream. In the morning he offered to buy a portion of their land,
and gave them a large quantity of goods, consisting of scissors, knives,
blankets, looking-glasses, and articles of this description. In