THE
CHRONLCLES
OF EARLY
MELBOURNE.
991
his presence, and met with a flattering friendly reception. Mr. Were complimented me upon what I was doing, enlarged upon its importance, and tendered all the aid at his c o m m a n d in the way of verbal and documentary information, for which I felt duly grateful. Suddenly, however, in the course , I see you have m e hard of our conversation he broke into an exclamation of "But, M r . F and fast in gaol under a committal for contempt by that infernal old scoundrel Judge Willis. Y o u must know h o w I afterwards got the upper hand of him, and was released with flying colours. I hope, therefore, as you have put m e in you will bring m e out in a becoming manner. Won't you?" For the m o m e n t I was non-plussed, and looked mystified into Mr. Were's face. I could not even guess at his meaning. S o m e days previously the particulars of the Supreme Court shindy appeared, in which M r . Were figured in the hands of the Sheriff collaring him away to "chokey," in obedience to the Judge's mandate; but a day or two after, Mr. Were's release by order of Judge Jeffcott, the successor of Willis, was circumstantially circulated in type. It occurred to m e that Mr. W e r e must have in some way or other missed this sub-section of the running sketch, and that he fancied himself still (figuratively) incarcerated, until it was m y pleasure to enlarge him. I saw at a glance that I had him somewhat under m y thumb, and as he was an imaginary "gaol-bird," I meant to keep him under bolt and bars as long as I could, the more effectually to make him useful to m y purpose. O n several subsequent occasions of meeting, Were would remark with a smile, " You haven't taken m e out of gaol yet," or " W h e n are you going to set m e at liberty ? " I believe that until he died he was under the impression that I had him still in the Willis limbo. O n another occasion there was quite an enjoyable encounter between us. I was about to write of the "Twelve Apostles," and only two of the "Saints" remained then on earth, from which both have been since removed by death—viz., Mr. J. B. Were, of Melbourne, and Mr. J. M . Woolley, of Adelaide. O n e day I called upon Mr. Were to obtain some information on the subject. H e turned sharply round upon m e , stared half aghast, and wholly surprised, and said, " W h y , man, surely you have no notion of disinterring that miserable, forgotten affair? If you do, you will bring trouble on your head, for as no one except myself can give you any reliable particulars, and that I a m not disposed to do, your version will be a distorted one, and as there are children and grandchildren of the ' Apostles' n o w alive and prospering in the colony, you will offend them, and they would be down upon you with a vengeance. Take a friend's advice, therefore, and wash your hands of the thing altogether." I quietly answered, " M r . Were, I a m writing the T H E C H R O N I C L E S O F E A R L Y M E L B O U R N E , which would not be complete without a reference to such an episode, so be the consequences what they may, the ' Apostles' shall most unquestionably grace a niche in m y portrait gallery." Then, rejoined he, " Well, of course, as you will not profit by m y warning, perhaps you will not object to answer m e one question. From what sources have you drawn your information about them ?" " Certainly not," said I. " T h e materials to be employed in the Apostolic Notice were procured from some Melbourne newspapers of 1842-3, from M r . W . F. A. Rucker, the Arch-Priest of the sanctified circle, from M r . William Highett, Manager of the Union Bank at the period of the negotiations, and from Mr. D. C. M'Arthur, Manager of the Bank of Australasia." This intimation caused M r . Were to considerably collapse, and he calmly replied, "Well, I'll tell you what had better be done. I shall supply you in the course of a week with as fairly written and full a notice of the ' Twelve Apostles' as I possibly can, and one that I think it will be quite safe for you to print." A thought struck m e that, by the sudden change of front, a bait was adroitly laid for me, so, with something of a gushing thanksgiving, went m y way, and in the course of three or four days I received from under Mr. Were's hand an account of the transaction, written with a tolerable degree of fairness; but tinctured with an ex parte animus, not perhaps unreasonable, under the circumstances. It was so phrased that the writer evidently intended and thought that I would adopt it as m y own. But in this he miscalculated, for I attached it as an appendix to m y o w n sketch, accounting for its appearance by stating that it had been found amongst the papers of one of the "Apostles," and placed at m y service.
