CHAPTER LXII.
A MORTUARY GROUP.
IN the course of the retrospective excursion in which I have employed myself, innumerable
incidents have cropped up to amuse and instruct; but, here and there, an occasional shadow intrudes which one cannot meet with without a feeling of regret. From time to time a colonist well-known in his day, drops out of existence, from natural or accidental causes, and in the crowding spectres of the past, such events are marked with a prominence that induces a consideration of the circumstances under which the void occurs. Several of such ghastly memorials are disentombed in raking up the dead past of a country or community, and in wading through the debris necessary to be examined in the compilation of these Chronicles, I have met with a few such reminders well meriting a passing notice.
John Batman.— First, and not least in the obituary scroll, is John Batman, by some designated the founder, and by others (more correctly) the pioneer or prospector of Melbourne and its surroundings. From 1836 to 1839, the period of his residence here, Batman, before that a robust and vigorous man, fell into bad health, and was so much of a valetudinarian as to be wheeled in a bath-chair about Batman's Hill and the adjacent then unformed streets. The Port Phillip Gazette of 8th May, 1839, thus announces his death:— "At his residence, on Monday, 6th May, after a protracted illness, John Batman, Esq., aged 39 years. His remains will be interred this morning at 11 o'clock." In the same paper there is this reference to the occurrence. —"Mr. Batman, at all times distinguished for his activity as a bushman, on the occasion of his last adventure, it is understood, exposed himself to an injurious degree, violent cold working on mercury previously dormant in his physical system, hurried him to a premature death. He has left a numerous family, all very young, and chiefly girls. Unfortunately for them his affairs are not in a settled state." This is a frigid notice of the demise of certainly the person of most consequence in the then small settlement. Though, in Batman or Fawkner, there was little of the faculty that would entitle them to anything savouring of hero-worship, their names are so historically entwined with the fortunes of Victoria, that, early or late, their memory ought not to be referred to in other than a feeling of meet consideration.
Batman's funeral took place as indicated, and in the presence of nearly all the adult population. His mortal remains were consigned to the earth in a portion of the now Old Cemetery, where they remained in a nameless grave, and with an unwritten epitaph, for more than forty years, when, on the suggestion of Sir W . Mitchell, the late President of the Legislative Council, a public subscription was set on foot to mark by some lasting monument the spot where so remarkable a man was buried. The project was taken zealously in hand by Mr. John J. Shillinglaw, Hon. Secretary to the movement, and worked with such success, that there would be little difficulty in obtaining for the purpose much more money than was required. It was at length completed, and on the 3rd June, 1882, was unveiled by Mr. C. J. Ham, the Mayor of Melbourne, surrounded by a gathering of old Colonists, and prominent amongst them were Mr, William Weire (Town Clerk of Geelong), and his son (Batman's
