Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/42

 is situated at the head of a deep bay within the Heads to the westward. Mr. Batman formed an association with fifteen gentlemen of Hobart Town for stocking and settling the country, for which purpose he purchased from the natives 600,000 acres of land, near to where he first landed. The consideration for this territory consisted of goods to the value of £200. In the same year another association was formed at Launceston for a similar purpose, headed by Mr. J. P. Faulkner, who landed at the Falls of the Yarra, the present site of Melbourne.

Mr. Batman, considering such to be an encroachment on his possessions, appealed to Sir Charles Arthur, Governor of Tasmania, but the New South Wales Government, on hearing of the dispute, disallowed all transactions with the natives, sending down a magistrate to assert her Majesty's rights, and to assume the government, and thus the country became annexed as a district of New South Wales.

In 1837 the settlement was visited by the Governor. Sir Richard Bourke, who sanctioned the plan of a town on the site chosen by Mr. Faulkner, and named it Melbourne, which, being divided into town lots, was disposed of. In 1839 C. J. La Trobe, Esq., was appointed Superintendent. In 1851 the district became a separate colony, and was named Victoria, and Mr. La Trobe appointed Lieutenant-Governor. In 1853 he tendered his resignation, and was succeeded by Sir Charles Hotham, K.C.B., who arrived in Hobson's Bay on the 21st of June, 1854.