This most extraordinary sale and purchase took place by the side of a lovely stream of water, from whence my land commenced. A tree was here marked in four different ways, to define the corner boundaries. Good land, to any extent, either for stock or tillage, with good water was here in abundance, ready for sheep, cattle, or the plough. Our negotiation was terminated by my Sydney natives giving our newly-acquired friends a grand corroborree at night, much to their delight. The group consisted, altogether, of forty-five men, women, and children.
Sunday, _June 7th._ I awoke this morning with the agreeable consciousness of my being able, like Alexander Selkirk, of school-boy memory, to say: "I am monarch of all I survey; my right there is none to dispute." With a view, however, of securing this right more permanently, I busied myself with drawing up triplicates of the deeds of the land I had purchased, and in delivering over to the natives more property. This was done on the banks of the lovely little creek which I have named Batman's Creek, as a memento of the novel and interesting transaction occurring on its banks. After the purchase and payment at the conclusion of the preliminaries, I had made preparation for departing, when two of the principal chiefs approached, and laid their royal mantles at my feet, begging my acceptance of them. Upon my acquiescing, the gifts were placed around my neck and over my shoulders by the noble donors, who seemed much pleased at their share in the transaction, and begged of me to walk a pace or two in their (now my) princely vestments. I asked them to accompany me to the vessel, to which request I received a rather feeling reply, by their pointing, first to their children, and next to their own naked feet, importing that they could not walk so fast as ourselves, but would come down in a few day. In the course of the late transaction, I had no difficulty in discovering their sacred and private mark, so important in all their transactions, and universally respected. I obtained a knowledge of this mark by means of one of my Sydney natives, Bungit, who, going behind a tree, out of sight of the females made the Sydney aboriginal mark. I afterwards took two others of my natives, and the principal chief of Port Phillip to whom I showed the mark on the tree, which he instantly recognized, and pointed, also, to the knocking out of the front tooth. This mark is always made simultaneously with the loss or extraction of the tooth. I requested the chief through the interpretation of my Sydney natives, to give the imprint of his mark. After a few minutes hesitation, he took a tomahawk and did as he was desired, on the bark of a tree. A copy of this mark is attached to the deed, as the signature and seal of their country.