gain from some one of liis acquaintances a little narrative of that savage life, hut utterly failed in doing so. Several newspaper folks tried repeatedly to worm a little out of him, through the agency of the steamy vapour of the punchbowl; hut though his eye might glisten a trifle, his tongue was sealed. Admitting the work to he apocryphal, Mr. Morgan evidently took pains to gather the best of information concerning the man, and as such we will take it as an authority for the leading facts of his history. Born about 1780 in Macclesfield, Cheshire, Buckley was appren ticed to a bricklayer. Ten guineas bounty brought him into the Cheshire Militia, from which he was draughted into the 4th or King’s Own regiment. We next learn, “ implicated in an affair which rendered me liable to punishment, &c.” It is added,— “ As the laws were strangely administered in those days, when soldiers and sailors were concerned, I do not know to this hour the precise character or extent of my sentence.” He arrived at Port Phillip a prisoner with Colonel Collins’ party in October, 1803. When it was resolved to remove this penal settlement to the banks of the Derwent, Buckley made his escape to the bush, with three others; one of these was shot by the constable. Rounding the Head of the Bay over the Yarra Yarra, our intelligent hero had some dim vision of reaching Sydney ; and for this purpose he travelled southward, and coasted the westward shore of Port Phillip. Oppressed with hunger and a sense of loneliness, the Englishmen made fires to attract the notice of the camp on the other side, but without success. The two prisoners left their companion to walk back and surrender themselves ; but they were never seen aganin. Alone in this wild country, William Buckley found a cavern near the beach, and subsisted for months upon shell-fish. He unhappily lost his fire-stick, and was deprived of the means of cooking. At length he was discovered by some natives when asleep. “ After seeing both my hands, they struck their breasts and mine too, making a whine.” They very reluctantly relin quished an attempt upon his stockings, and then left him. He removed his quarters. Then two women saw him, and went to
