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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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