a Roving Party under Thomas Anstey, Police Magistrate at Oatlands. Anstey was also responsible for the Roving Party led by Gilbert Robertson that had captured 5 Aboriginal people near Swanport on 7 November 1828. Arthur eventually approved a grant of 2000 acres for Batman after one year of service, making the commission a profitable venture for Batman. The 'Dharug' Pigeon and John Crook were two Aboriginal men employed by John Batman for the purposes of tracking Indigenous Tasmanians. In the novel they are described as 'Dharug', that is men of the Dharug Nation from the modern day Sydney Basin area. Pigeon and Crook emigrated to Van Diemens Land at Batman's request sometime before September 1829, however they were not Dharug men. Pigeon (Indigenous name Beewurher/Warroba) was a Yuin man from the Shoalhaven area and John Crook (Indigenous name Yunbai) was from the Illawarra or Tharrawal language group in southern NSW. After the success of the operation described in the novel, Pigeon and Crook accompanied Batman back to Sydney for the purposes of procuring more Indigenous men. Ultimately, 7 NSW Indigenous men were employed by Batman for Roving Parties over the 4 years between 1829-1833 and were based at his property at Kingston on the Ben Lomond Rivulet. Command of the NSW men, and further Roving Parties, was taken by Anthony Cottrell, a local constable and pound-keeper, but further successes may have been attributable to the employment of a Tasmanian Indigenous woman karnebutcher'' or 'Sall' rather than the presence of the NSW men. Pigeon and Crook were also reported to have been recommended land grants adjacent to Kingston but, although plans of the region show their grants, they never took up the land. It appears that Batman sold these allotments, along with William Ponsonby's, to help finance his expedition to Port Phillip and the founding of Melbourne. Due to the discontent of the men, and their perceived lack of efficacy by the colonial government, all of the NSW men were returned to NSW by March 1833. James Gumm James Gumm was a convict transported to Van Diemens Land in 1822. By the time of his employment with John Batman he was a'ticket of leave' man and he was employed by John Batman as a general farmhand or for the purposes of capturing hostile Indigenous clanspeople. He had a long relationship with Batman, after the events described in the novel he remained