in all his wanderings. From the
time of his abandonment by Marmon and
Pye, until his final return to the
establishment (a period of thirty-two years) he
did not see a white man. For the first
few years, his time and mind were fully
occupied in procuring food and guarding
against treachery from the natives; but
he soon acquired a practical knowledge of
their language, adopted their habits, and
became one of their community. One of the
chiefs gave him a wife; but discovering
that she was betrothed to one of her own
tribe, Buckley relinquished her. This,
however, did not prevent the natives from
putting her to death; for it was one of
their usages that when a woman had
been promised as a wife (which generally
happened as soon as she was born), it was
considered a binding engagement, the
breach of which was visited with
summary vengeance. Very little is now known
of the aborigines of Australia in their
native or untutored state. It is the more
interesting to notice the experience of
Buckley on this matter, during about
one-third of a century.

Buckley found the natives rude and
barbarous; often addicted to cannibalism; but
well disposed towards the white man. He
was unable to introduce among them any
essential improvements, feeling that his
safety chiefly depended on his conformity
to their usages and customs. Their
cannibalism was chiefly shown in time of war,
when prisoners were killed, roasted, and
eaten. Such was the miserable and
precarious mode in which they procured their
food, that they destroyed their new-born
children if born before the former child
had attained the age of three or four
years: dreading the burden and anxiety
of having to support two young children
at once. As in all rude communities,
the women were completely subservient
to the men, acting merely as slaves, and
receiving little in return but austerity and
violence. Many of their regulations in
regard to marriage were singular. A
man might have as many wives as he could
support; on his death a custom prevailed
analogous to the old Mosaic law—his
widows became the property of his eldest
surviving brother or next of kin. They
had a curious custom of prohibiting a man
from looking at the mother of the girl
given to him in marriage; this was adhered
to with the utmost strictness; the greatest
concern being evinced if, through any
accident, the mother were seen. Buckley could
not find that they had any clear notion of
a deity, or any form of worship whatever;
yet they entertained an idea that
after death they would again exist, but
in the form of white men. They showed the
customary dexterity of such people in the
use of the spear, the dart, the arrow, &c.,
and their senses of sight, hearing, and
smell, were very acute. Their habitations
were of the most rude and simple construction,
being made of the branches of trees
arranged with tolerable compactness at
an angle of about forty-five degrees; in
shape they formed the segment of a circle,
the size being proportionate to the number
of persons composing the family.

These were the people among whom this
Englishman passed so long a period of
his life. Buckley never travelled further
than a hundred and fifty miles from the
spot where he first encountered the natives,
during the whole term of thirty-two years;
though he never lost the anxious wish
to return to civilised society. The
circumstances which gave him the desired
opportunity were these. Two natives, residing
at the English encampment at Port Philip
in 1835, stole an axe; having been assured
by others that the theft would be severely
punished, they absconded. They accidentally
fell in with Buckley, to whom they
communicated the fact of white men being
in the neighbourhood. They announced
their intention of procuring other natives
to go back with them and spear the white
men. Buckley instantly formed a two-fold
plan; to save the white men, and to return
to civilised life. He succeeded in inducing
the runaways to guide him to the
encampment whence they had escaped.
They did so. The Englishmen at the camp
were amazed to see the two runaways
accompanied by a man who seemed half
Englishman, half savage; he was of lofty
stature (six feet two inches), was enveloped
in a kangaroo skin rug, was armed
with spear, shield, and club, and wore hair
and beard of more than thirty years' growth.
He seated himself among the natives of the
encampment, apparently taking no notice of
the white men. They, however, quickly
detected his European features. He could
not in the least express himself in English;
but, after the lapse of ten or twelve days,
the remembrance of old familiar words
and phrases came back to him sufficiently
for the purposes of conversation. The
native family with whom Buckley had
so long resided, and who had become
greatly attached to him, bitterly lamented