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16 the fact of his never having seen a white man during his residence with the natives, (and I confess, knowing that the sealers were in the habit of sometimes visiting this part of the coast, I was not without them at first,) they were now entirely removed. Nullahoin and his family had never seen a white man with the exception of Buckley, till he saw me. He received and examined me with great curiosity, opening my waistcoat and shirt to see whether the whole of my body was white.” But subsequently the memory of the slow man returned, and he gave another version. With the monotony of scene and life among his Black Friends for the long period of thirty years, we would fain excuse this lapse of intellect, especially from a knowledge of the man’s mental infirmities. We subjoin Mr. Wedge’s statement: “ During a ride with Buckley on my second visit to Port Phillip, he corrected his former statement of never having seen a white man during his residence with the natives. He stated that on one occasion a small craft was in the Port, not far from its entrance. He was on the Peninsula on the eastern side of Swan Bay, on Indented Head, when a boat from the craft with three or four men in it put on shore, I think I understood him, for the purpose of burying one of their companions. He watched them unobserved for some time till they were about returning to their vessel, when he made his appearance, and intimated his wish, by repeating the few words of English that he could remember at the moment, to accompany them. They probably mistook him for a native, as they might do from his long heard, hair, spears, &c., and being habitted in his opossum rug, and took no heed of him. On the following morning they came again on shore and coo-e^ed, (i.e. called out) as he supposes for the purpose of his again making his appearance. But he had changed his mind, suspecting them of treachery, and remained concealed amongst the trees and shrubs on the Peninsula. This was the only time he had seen a white man, and as he had no intercourse with them, the circumstance might not occur to him when he joined our party.” The interesting documents connected with the pardon of Buckley are now appended, and furnish the most lucid and faithful account of this marvellous person.
