CHAPTER I.
"Time was when dreary solitude was here;
When night-black woods, unvisited by man,
In howling conflict wrestled with the winds.
But now, the storm rolling, in mingled life
Is heard, and like a roaring furnace fills
With living sound the airy reach of miles!
***
Thou hugest region of the quartered globe.
Where all the climates dwell, and Nature moves
In majesty,—hereafter when the tides
Of circumstance have rolled their changing years,
What empires may be born of thee!"
AS mentioned in the Introductory Chapter, a penal settlement was attempted to be formed within Port Philip Bay in 1803, and that such, after a short time, was abandoned. In 1826 another attempt was made by Captain Wetherall, but after two years this was also abandoned. No permanent settlement was formed within the province until the year 1834, when the Messrs. Henty, of Launceston, Tasmania, formed a whaling station at Portland Bay, to the westward of Port Philip Heads. This was the first regular settlement by white men in Victoria. In 1835 Mr. John Batman arrived in Geelong, which
