WILLIAM BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN. Having before alluded to this wonderful character, in the “History and Settlement of Port Phillip,” we propose now to pursue the subject more in detail, and allow parties to speak for themselves concerning him. A work appeared a few years ago in Hobart Town, purporting to be written by Buckley himself, or at his dictation, and edited by Lieutenant Morgan, a veteran and esteemed member of the Tasmanian Press. But there are weighty reasons of objection to its authenticity. All those with whom we have consulted, who knew Buckley both in Port Phillip and in Hobart Towm, repudiate the book. They all agree in saying that he was so dull and reserved, that it was impossible to get any connected or reliable information from him. When Governor Bourke saw him in 1837, he could make nothing of him. A few monosyllabic replies only could be obtained. Captain Lonsdale, to whose regiment he was formerly attached, vainly sought some knowledge of his career. Mr. Fawkner styled him “ a mindless lump of matter.” Mr. George Arden, the earliest writer on the colony says, “ His extreme reserve renders it almost impossible to learn anything from him of his past life, or of his acquaintance with the aborigines.” Captain Stokes, the Australian voyager, observes of him : “ His intellect, if he ever possessed much, had almost entirely deserted him, and nothing of any value could be procured from him respecting the history and manners of the tribe with whom he had so long dwelt.” We lived for seven years in the same Town with Buckley, almost daily seeing his gigantic figure slowly pacing along the middle of the road, with his eyes vacantly fixed upon some object before him, never turning his head to either side or saluting a passer by. He seemed as one not belonging to our world. Not being divested of curiosity, we often endeavoured to
