Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/335

Robbins, after examining King's Island, entered Port Phillip in January. The Surveyor-General on shore, with assistants, worked upon the east coast, returning to the Cumberland when necessary. Robbins and the gardener were often on shore. The schooner was moved from place to place so as to be available for the land-party to return to her at night. Five times the natives were seen, some of them close to the present site of Melbourne. Biscuits were on two occasions given to them, and no ill-usage on either side was recorded. Once Mr. Grimes returned to the ship to obtain a stronger guard, as eleven natives met the party on landing. They were peaceful, and accepted biscuit, fish, and a tomahawk. The mouth of the Yarra Yarra was discovered, and the Saltwater and Yarra Yarra rivers were ascended. The land-party, consisting of Robbins, Grimes, the gardener, with as many of seven sailors as may have left the boat (4th Feb. 1803), stood upon Batman's Hill, long known as a picturesque spot in Melbourne, but lovelled in later years to give place to a railway station.

On the following day water-casks were taken up the Yarra Yarra, and the Cumberland was supplied from what the gardener styled in his journal "the great river." For several days afterwards Mr. Grimes was surveying on the banks of the Yarra, and the gardener sowed seeds. On one occasion the latter, when alone, saw seven natives, but they did not molest him. Grimes surveyed the course of the Yarra for many miles above the present site of Melbourne. The result of the expedition was not what might have been looked for from such explorers. Neither Grimes nor Robbins praised the soil they saw, although they reported that small portions were fit for cultivation.^[1] The value of the natural grasses in yielding pasture for fine-woolled sheep was not then known. The previous reports of Murray and Flinders, chiming in as they did with the Governor's desires, had, however, been so favourable that the English government, without waiting for further information, determined to occupy Port Phillip.