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34 CHAPTER V. THE SUCCESSFUL SETTLEMENT OF PORT PHILLIP. BATMAN AND GELLIBRAND’s APPLICATION. The proximity of Western Port to Launceston, its readiness of access at all times, and its perfect safety, caused it to be well known to the Strait traders; and, as sailors’ descriptions are much influenced by their own impulsive character, and as their knowledge of the qua lities of soils is not equal to their experience at the rudder, we easily comprehend why that district was long the fabled land of brilliant • visions,—the hope and object of colonial enterprise, and why, like the apple of Sodom, in the moment of possession, its beauty and richness changed to worthlessness and disgust. Even before the settlement under captain Wright, in 1826, parties had contemplated a location in this Elysium. In about 1824, according to the information afforded the writer by Mr. McIntyre, on the Yarra, three persons re sident at the South Esk, Van Diemen’s Land, formed an association to run sheep at Western Port. They were Messrs. Wm. Gray, of Avoca, Fielding and Forbes. The removal of the first named gentle man to India frustrated the design. Mr. John Gardiner, also one of our early colonists, mentions that the American Robinson, as he was called, gave much valuable information relative to various parts on our southern coast about the year 1827, and urgently recommended the occupation of so fine a country. The first private individuals who sought, in a proper and legitimate manner, to establish themselves on our shores were Joseph Tice Gellibrand and John Batman. The former was Ex-Attorney-General of Yan Diemen’s Land ; a man greatly interested in the subject, and to whom, in fact, much of the merit of ultimate success in the colonization of Port Phillip may he justly attributed. Mr. Batman was a settler on the northern side of the island, and reported to be in that day the most energetic and experienced of Bushmen. After long considera-
