| Title | : | The Life and Adventures of William Buckley |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1877008206 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781877008207 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 200 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1979 |
The Life and Adventures of William Buckley Reviews
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William Buckley was born in Cheshire in 1780 and was transported to Australia in 1803. The fleet with which he travelled was supposed to start a new settlement at Port Philip, which I understand is now part of Greater Melbourne. As far as I can tell they were the first Europeans to arrive in this particular part of Australia, which may have been a factor in how Buckley was later treated by the aborigines. On this occasion the attempt at a settlement was abandoned, and in December 1803 Buckley decided to make a run for it after hearing he and the other prisoners were to be transferred to the dreaded camps of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania).
After his escape Buckley encountered the grave of an aboriginal man, marked by a spear, which he took to use as a walking stick. He subsequently met a group of aboriginal people, who at the sight of him began to wail and display other signs of grief. It seems that the grave was that of a man called Murrangurk. The aborigines believed in ghosts, and seeing this strange figure carrying Murrangurk’s spear, had concluded he was the ghost of their former friend.
To this providential superstition, I was indebted for all the kindnesses afterwards shown me.
Buckley lived with the aborigines for more than 3 decades. The accuracy of this short account has been called into question, particularly since at one point Buckley claims to have seen the Bunyip, a creature that belongs to aboriginal mythology. Buckley said the animal was aquatic and that he only saw its back breaking through the water. That some of his account was exaggerated doesn’t mean that all of it was. To me much of it sounded accurate. For example, Buckley comments how the aborigines were in general very healthy:
I never observed any European contagious diseases present, in the least degree; and this I thought strange.
Of course the natives had never been exposed to these infections. They were to die in huge numbers once they came into contact with more Europeans, and by extension Eurasian diseases.
The text contains descriptions of deadly clashes between aboriginal bands, to the extent that the reader gains an impression of near-continuous warfare. I had to keep reminding myself that these events took place over 3 decades. A lot of Buckley’s friends became casualties though, and he portrayed a society where extreme violence was commonplace.
Finally in 1835 Buckley entered a camp that some white men had set up on the shore. Initially he struggled to speak English to them, but:
Word by word I began to comprehend what they said, and soon understood – as if by instinct – that they intended to remain in the country; - that they had seen several of the native chiefs, with whom – as they said – they had exchanged all sorts of things for land; but that I knew could not have been, because, unlike other savage communities…they have no chiefs claiming or possessing any superior rights over the soil; theirs being only as the heads of families…I also knew that if any transactions had taken place, it must have been because the natives knew nothing of the value of the country except as hunting grounds…I therefore looked upon the land dealing spoken of, as another hoax of the white man, to possess the inheritance of the uncivilized natives of the forest…”
Buckley was subsequently employed by the authorities as an interpreter, but it sounds very much as if he was disliked by the settlers because he defended the aborigines.
This is a very short account but to me a very, very interesting one. -
Interesting historical artifact, even if the tribal war accounts are repetitive, though one has to treat his "Life and Adventures" with some amount of skepticism, given the alterations to his story as time went on. It does show that the Australian native peoples were every bit as violent as hunter-gatherers elsewhere: Borneo, the Amazon, etc. Although I am concurrently reading a history of the exploration of Greenland, and the Inuit people seemed remarkably peaceable compared to other tribal people, including the Australian tribes.
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William Buckley was born in Cheshire, England in 1780. He was trained to be a bricklayer, but the monotonous work bored him. He joined the militia and was a soldier for four years. Then, he met some scruffy lads, and got busted for receiving stolen property. In 1803, he was rewarded for his mischief with a one-way nine-month pleasure cruise to a luxurious resort for white trash in Middle of Nowhere, Australia. He never saw his family again.
It was not a high security penal colony, because fleeing into the vast wilderness was essentially suicide. In just three months the prison routine got unbearably boring, and Buckley joined three other lads in a great escape. One was shot by a guard, and the two others soon lost their courage and gave up. Buckley was a stubborn cuss, not an obedient bootlicker. He refused to surrender, bid farewell to his cowardly mates, and abandoned the British Empire. Good luck Willy!
A mile or two later, in an incredible act, he passed through a time warp, and entered a vast Stone Age wilderness inhabited by cannibals, venomous snakes, and vicious packs of dingo dogs. He was free as can be, suddenly a clueless unarmed hunter-gatherer in a reality quite similar to 40,000 B.C. For the next 32 years, he never saw a civilized person, forgot his mother tongue, ceased knowing what year it was, and continuously worked to improve his survival skills. Fresh air, sunshine, and absolute freedom. Imagine that! His escape inspires pleasant fantasies for daydreaming corporate inmates trapped in cubicle farm workstations.
In the next several months, Buckley ate shellfish and occasionally observed a few passing natives. One day he stumbled upon a grave with a spear sticking out of it — Lucky Willy’s salvation. He took the spear, and used it for a walking stick. Later, while having a pleasant nap, he was spotted by two native women, who returned to their camp with wondrous news of a white man. Everyone came to see him, and he was given the name Murrangurk, the name of the corpse in the grave, previous owner of the spear. They believe that after death, souls return as white men. They were very happy to find him, and Willy now had relatives who held him in great awe.
Over time, he mastered their language. He learned a great deal about hunting, fishing, and foraging. He now dined on organic swans, emus, shellfish, shrimp, opossums, squirrels, large ants, roots, wombats, kangaroos, black snakes, grubs, lizards, toads, rats, and mice. Yum! Technology included long spears, short spears, spear throwers, boomerangs, tomahawks, shrimp nets, and fire-making sticks. Their portable mansions were bark tents. They weren’t too interested in clothing, fashionable folks wore a few strips of hide.
His saga often mentions seeing gatherings of 100, 200, and 300 natives, which surprised me. My minimal knowledge of Aborigines, based on twentieth century commentaries, led me to believe that they lived in small groups in a harsh land where food was scarce. Buckley indicated that they were intimately attuned to the cycles of the seasons, knowing when and where abundant food was likely to be found, for a temporary span of time. They lived a wandering life, trying to move from one food banquet to the next, improvising along the way.
Buckley arrived in Australia in 1803, just one year after the first non-Australian arrived in the wilderness. Willy spent 32 years with the Wathaurong Aborigines in the Port Phillip and Geelong districts (near Melbourne), and then made contact with sailors in 1835. In about 1849, as he neared the end of his life, he told his story to impoverished journalist John Morgan. Buckley could not read or write. The saga he told was based entirely on memory, long after the events occurred. He especially remembered the events that had made the deepest impressions on him — conflict and bloodshed.
Throughout the short book, he describes numerous violent events. Many folks were speared to death, and many of their corpses were eaten. Very often, women were the cause of bloody disputes. These conflicts were commonly resolved by spearing the woman, or the man who was with her, who was not her husband. Whenever someone was speared, the family of the victim was obliged to seek revenge, immediately, or at a convenient opportunity in the future. If the chief offender was not available, a member of his family would do. Sometimes two tribes clashed in large rumbles, and several died in the process.
Buckley reported that all deaths were believed to be the result of human agency, never natural causes. For example, when a man from an enemy tribe died from a snakebite, Buckley’s tribal brother-in-law was suspected of sorcery or something. The enemies attacked and speared the family that had kindly adopted him. Buckley became an orphan in a dangerous world, and he cried and cried for hours.
He felt safe and relaxed when living alone by a river or shore, but dangerous people could suddenly appear at any hour. Any day he could become the main course at dinner. One white man who met him later in life said he was of “a nervous and irritable disposition, and a little thing will annoy him much.” Another noted that he “was always discontented and dissatisfied.”
His wild days ended when he met some sailors on the shore. They were utterly surprised to see a dirty, nearly naked, six foot five inch (2 m) white man with long flowing hair, and a spear. It took him some time to remember English. He was greatly relieved to return to civilized society. He worked as an interpreter for colonists. Their mission was to meet native chiefs, and buy their land for a pile of trinkets. The natives had no chiefs, and no concept of owning land or selling it, but they did have a fondness for blankets, knives, and stuff. They did not understand what these transactions actually meant.
Buckley the bricklayer built the chimney for the first brick house in a primitive frontier settlement now known as Melbourne. Before long, a steady stream of ships was unloading settlers. Pissed off natives found exciting new opportunities in sheep rustling, looting, and spearing terrorists. There were many conflicts, and the well-armed terrorists eventually conquered the Aborigines, and profitably began mining the soil, grassland, forests, and wildlife. Buckley married the widow of a friend who had been speared. Soon after, he got typhus. In 1856, he died of injuries received from being run over by an ox cart in Hobart. The end.
This is a short book, and Morgan was not a master wordsmith. The book is a unique snapshot of a time, a place, and a life — a reminder of the era of low impact living. It’s an effective antidote for those who suffer from the illusion that wild tribes of hunter-gatherers universally enjoyed idyllic lives of love, peace, and happiness. It’s also sad.
Today, two centuries later, the wild ecosystem of 1803 has been severely and permanently damaged. This is not a path with a long future. The Aboriginal path very closely resembled genuine sustainability. All paths include some conflict and bloodshed, some coherence and happiness. We live in interesting times. -
This is a fascinating book I read years ago and just remembered I'd written what was effectively a review of it at the time.
The history of any frontier town is bound to contain myths. One myth that is repeated in many cultures is that of the Yeti: a huge man-like creature that scampers out of the bush or generally hides in snow-fields.
Henry Batman, John Batman's brother, arrived in Port Phillip shortly after John had laid claim to huge tracks of Southern Victoria on the basis of a questionable treaty with local aboriginal 'chiefs'. Henry Batman's party was sent to Port Phillip to protect their claim to the land.
Soon after they arrived in Indented Head out of the thick bush came an enormous white man. He was covered in an opossum skin coat and carried a number of spears and a waddy.
At first Batman's party thought he had come to carry them off to the bush. He looked as if he could easily carry one man under each arm. He was six feet seven inches tall - over two metres high. His flowing beard and his inability to speak English only made him seem more frightening.
It turned out his name was William Buckley, something he tried to show by pointing to the 'WB' tattoo on his arm. He had spent the last thirty-two years living with the Aboriginals around Port Phillip.
The Wild White Man, as he came to be known, was born in Cheshire, England. He was a bricklayer who joined the army and was sent to fight the revolutionary French. Being so tall he became a pivot man, but after returning wounded to England he was soon found guilty of receiving stolen goods: a roll of cloth for which he was sentenced to transportation for life.
For six months he worked on the notorious hulks - old ships used as prison factories. He was then sent on the Calcutta under Lieutenant Governor Collins to found a new penal settlement in Port Phillip in 1803. Interestingly enough, this settlement was partly meant as a means to prevent the French gaining control of Bass Strait - something that cut a thousand miles from the journey to England - but Collins set up camp just inside the heads close to present day Sorrento, pretty close to the worst possible site for a settlement.
Collins abandoned the site three months later and went on to Tasmania where he founded Hobart. Before Collins left Port Phillip four of his prisoners escaped. One was shot in the attempt. The others made their why to the other side of the bay and then, lacking food and afraid for their lives, they began to send smoke signals to the ship across the bay.
The signals were noticed, but ignored as coming, "probably from run-aways", so Buckley's companions decided to go turn back to make their way back to the settlement and captivity.
Buckley decided that he preferred his freedom. He went on, living on berries and shell fish. The other two escapees were never seen again. Buckley believed that they had been killed by the local Aboriginals because they had been too free with the Aboriginal women.
While Collins was in Tasmania taking handfuls of snuff while he watched convicts being flogged, Buckley luckily found the grave of an aboriginal chief. The grave had a spear sticking beside it which William was wise enough to take with him.
When he was found by the local Aboriginals and they saw the spear he was carrying they thought that he was the reincarnation of the tribal chief whose grave he had plundered. He was immediately accepted into the tribe and given a wife and other relations. The Aboriginals believed that when they died they became white and therefore assumed that Buckley acted so strangely (even losing his ability to speak their language) because that is what happens to you when you die and come back to life. (Makes as much sense as most religion, I suspect)
William learnt the local Aboriginal language and had a daughter to his new wife. He saw occasional white visitors over the next three decades, mostly sealers and whalers who regularly came to Port Phillip, but he kept away from them and had no intention of giving himself up to become a convict again. As he said later,
"Although so desolately placed, I for a long time fancied myself comparatively happy and could gladly have ended my days there."
William said, "I now became a tolerable efficient sportsman, being able to throw a spear and handle a tomahawk very adroitly."
He decided to give himself up when he heard some Aboriginals planning to attack Batman's ship that had just landed. After thirty year William Buckley had forgotten how to speak English, but it eventually came back. He was employed by Batman for a time as an interpreter and mediator between himself and the local Aboriginals. He was also granted a full pardon by Lieutenant Governor Arthur.
Buckley was in an unusual position. He stood between two worlds. It was a situation that could not last. As the implications of white settlement became more apparent to the local Aboriginals Buckley found that he became an outcast and increasingly less trusted by either community. He also became disheartened by the unwillingness of his fellow countrymen to see the world from the perspective of the Aboriginals. He feared that eventually something would happen to either the Aboriginals or the Europeans and he would be killed of being on the wrong side.
He decided to leave for Tasmania where he worked as a store-keeper and then as a gate-keeper at the Female Factory. He became friendly with a family in Tasmania. Ironically the husband was killed by Aboriginals on a journey from Sydney to Melbourne. He married the widow and had two more daughters.
The American author Mark Twain mentions the story of William Buckley in his book Following the Equator. Twain claims that Buckley escaped hoping to walk to California, as he knew nothing of geography. He also says that William gave up in this as, "he was in doubt of California's precise whereabouts". William himself claims he wanted to get to Sydney, but says,
"The attempt was little short of madness for there was before me the chance of being retaken and probable death, or again starvation in an unknown country inhabited by savages..."
William's use of the word 'savages' should not be misunderstood. He was very grateful for the help given him by the local Aboriginals in his years in Port Phillip and saddened by other white settler's unwillingness to understand the beliefs and customs of the local Aboriginals. One of his main reasons for going to Tasmania was that he did not want to be a witness to what he felt would be the inevitable distraction of these 'savages'. -
Today I learned that in Australia, «to have Buckely’s luck» means that your are extremely lucky. And yes. To be lost in what basically is a new world and be found by a tribe which believes you are the spirit of their recently passed uncle, come again, and then be treated as a family member, that’s the kind of odds which makes you look for a falling whale and flowerpot somewhere.
Amazing story and a really rare view into a lost world. -
32 года жизни Уильяма Бакли, беглого преступника, среди австралийских аборигенов на самой заре основания первых английских колоний в Австралии уложились в 90 страниц неутомительного чтения. Свидетельство короткое, но особо ценное, ибо дает некоторый взгляд на настоящую первобытную жизнь позднего каменного века за тот период, пока влияние цивилизации практически эту самую жизнь еще не затронуло. Бросается в глаза (это отмечают многие), что туземцы регулярно затевали смертоубийственные свары из-за совершенно ничтожных поводов. И я в это верю, поскольку читал про аналогичные обстоятельства о жизни папуасов Новой Гвинеи или племен Черной Африки. Аборигены регулярно нападали племя на племя или род на род по ничтожным поводам, часто просто от скуки, да вот только схватки по большей части сопровождались смертоубийствами, и далеко не одного-двух человек. Законы еще не придумали. Мне смешно читать, про деспотию каких-нибудь фараонов, заставлявших бедных египетских крестьян платить налоги и батрачить на постройках собственных усыпаленок и мавзолеюшек. Египтяне были окружены варварами и вполне себе адекватно оценивали такое преимущество государства, как личную безопасность. Как-то так.
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Really interesting piece of history, if necessarily flawed and of doubtful veracity in parts. This is, however, unavoidable when a writer chooses to pen another person's oral history.
As a means of gaining some (admittedly limited) access to what the First Australians' pre-invasion societies looked like, this book is golden. Modern mainstream Australia holds still fast to the noble savage myth in its colonial and postcolonial discourse. Though the noble savage appears also in this book, there is enough quotidian detail for an inquisitive mind to read it contrapuntally.
Morgan ain't much of a writer, but Buckley's story carries itself in spite of the good intentions of his biographer. -
Fascinating book available cheaply on Amazon. It's also a pretty short book, considering that it covers 30 years of a man's life. About 3/4 of the way through I realized why: nothing happens when one is living at one with nature. The book describes Aborigines and life in the bush, and is punctuated by stories of extreme cruelty and savagery. Otherwise there is nothing else to talk about for 30 years.
At the end, the writer condemns William Buckley who, despite being born and reared in the most advanced society of the day, had no discernible impact on stone age tribesmen. I'm not so sure: I question if even our greatest leaders, religious, secular, or otherwise, could have any impact on people whose lifestyle had remained completely unchanged for 5,000 years. I'm interested in hearing others' opinions. -
This is a fascinating account of life in an aboriginal tribe in southern victoria, told by the escaped convict William Buckley - the source of the eponym "You'll have buckley's". Buckley lived with the tribe for more than thirty years in the early 1800's and so was not only intimately involved in day to day tribal life, but was imbued with their cultural and spiritual beliefs - hence his belief in the bunyip and his respectful silence on the tribe's sacred secrets.
The Life and Adventures is a rich primary source documenting aboriginal Australians before contact with European Australians changed their way of life forever. It is also a cracking survival story. Four stars. -
Fascinating account of Aboriginal life in Victoria before European intervention. Definitely worth a read.
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A pretty weird tale tbh. Interesting as an historical document
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More interesting Australiana. Good portrait of early settlers.
