indirectly, being warmly greeted by her son, the Duke of Edinburgh, in January 1868. Clad in a blue suit, with a gold-lace band round his cap, he walked proudly with the Prince on the Hobart Town regatta ground, conscious that they alone were in possession of royal blood.
A couple of months after Lanné went whaling again. He returned in the Runnymede in February of the present year, bloated and unhealthy. For several days he complained of sickness. On the Friday he was suddenly seized with choleraic diarrhœa, and his system was unable to bear up against the attack. The following day he attempted to dress himself, with a view of proceeding to the hospital for treatment, but the exertion overcame him, and he fell dead on the bed. The Hobart Town Mercury of March 5th, 1869, has this melancholy record:—
"He had an unfortunate propensity for beer and rum, and was seldom sober when on shore. He was paid off on Saturday last, when he received a balance of wages and lay amounting to 12l. 13s. 5d. He took up his residence at the 'Dog and Partridge' public-house, at the corner of Goulburn and Barrack streets, and died from a severe attack of English cholera, as described by us yesterday. His body was removed to the Colonial Hospital on Wednesday night, March 3d, where it awaits burial, and to-morrow the grave will close over the last male aboriginal of Tasmania."
The circumstances attending this funeral were very remarkable. From my friend Mr. J. W. Graves, barrister in Hobart Town, I received letters relative to this extraordinary affair. A true friend of the Tasmanians, he endeavoured to make the occasion of national significance, and wished to see the Governor with other officials pay the last mark of respect to the Last Man of the Aborigines. But the Hobart Town Mercury, of March 8th, gives the following particulars:—
The Burial of William Lanné
On Saturday afternoon the remains of "Billy Lanné" or, as he was generally called, "King Billy," the last male Aboriginal of Tasmania, were committed to the grave in presence of a very large concourse of the citizens. On the announcement of the "death of the last man," it was generally supposed that the funeral would be made a public
