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43 “ jumping about like a kangaroo,” was forced back into Port Sorell Here purchases of more tools and agricultural implements were made, with the intention of leaving two men at Port Arthur, “ if,” as the jour nalist wrote, “every thing answers and turns out to my expectations.” On the 25th he despairingly exclaims, “ When shall we have a wind, Oh dear !” Had the Juno of Port Phillip conspired with iEolus to arrest the progress of this wandering vEneas, no more unpropitious gales cou d have blown. Off again on the 26th, the voyagers entered the caves of Hunter Island, and on Friday, May 29th, they anchored in Port Phillip Bay, by Indented Head, a dozen miles inward. The energy of the man forbade indulgence. He landed the same day and walked 12 miles over a pastoral paradise. The grass was two to three feet high, and as thick as it could stand. Well might he indite that evening, “I never saw anything equal to the land in my life.” The kangaroos skipped about, but the stiffened limbs of the sailor quadrupeds made the chase unsuccessful. Then fresh tracks of natives appeared, and the rude huts in which they had been eating mussels. The next day the vessel drew nearer Geelong. A walk of twenty miles over the peninsula of Indented Head occasioned Mr. Batman thus to express himself;—“ I found the hills of a most su perior description, beyond my most sanguine expectations.” At the close of this day’s entry is the following passage ; “ To my great joy and delight we saw at some distance the natives’ fire ; I intend to go off to them early in the morning, and get if possible on a friendly footing with them, in order to purchase land.” On the 31st inst. the party landed somewhere near the river Exe, now the Werribee, and procedtd towards the fires. The leader directed his natives to go ahead in the aboriginal costume of a simple undress. The very circuitous tract was pursued for ten miles, when they caught a wretched looking old woman with no toes on one of her feet. Their good temper calmed her apprehensions, and at their request she under took to guide them to the encampment, where were 20 women and 24 children ; the lords of the forest and mia mia were absent. The Sydney gentlemen were strangers, and the ladies were coy. But the genial influence of native politeness, and the mellowing effect of judicious flattery soon made the camp a merry one. As the journal saith, “ They seemed quite pleased with my natives, who could partially un derstand them. They sang and danced for them.” The report, of course, is more stiff and grand :
