A REMARKABLE STORY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5228, 18 January 1928, Page 4

A REMARKABLE STORY.

e WITH WILD CANNIBALS. ESCAPED CONVICT’S LIFE. “One 'hofur of glorious liberty is worth a whole eternity of bondage.” Is tliis the thought that lures so many convicts to essay escape ? asks a writer in John o’ London’s Weekly. Certainly 1927 lias been remarkable for the numerous daring bids for freedom made by prisoners undergoing sentence —attempts that have ended, as ever in Britain, in recapture..

Overseas, li'owejver, escaped prisoners have frequently succeeded in remaining at large for years. Most amazing of all was the case °f the celebrated “Wild White Man” of Australia, who, aftqr. starving in the bush, lived for 32 years, witii cannibals, and even took a cannibal as wife, before surrendering to the authorities and dictating his romantic experiences for publication in the form of liis biography.

William Buckley, private sol.diex, had already at 22 seen active service and been wounded .when he was convicted at Gibraltar in 1802 for conspiring to shoot the, Duke of Kent, and was transported to the convict settlejment in New South Wales. In 1803, two days, after Christmas Buckley and three fellow-convicts managed to. dodge past the sentry ; one was shot, but the others pushed on into the bush. AMONG FRIENDLY SAVAGES. V For se.ven days, saved from absolute starvation by occasional shellfish, the three men wandered on until Buckley’s companion, exhausted by hunger, thirst, and fatigue, decided to return to prison. Buckley himself preferred to cling to the liberty that surrounded him in the trackless Australian wilds. Alone and unarmed, he struggled on, living on uncooked shellfish, berries, and lemons. Days passed. Then suddenly he came face to face with three armed savages.

Escape was impossible. Luckily Buckleiy’s. great height—he was 6ft sin—overawed these pigmy aboriginals, and they made friendly overtures. They escorted Buckley to their grass huts, where he passed a sleppless night of fear. Next morning the savages, took a violent fancy to Buckley’s stockings, but finding his refusal to part with them proof against both threats, and. gifts, they left him to his own devices. Some days later his strength began to fail him. Spotting a spear stuck upright in a mound, he dragged it out and used it as a walking stick, until, worn out, he flung himsejf down, spear in hand, beneath a tree. BUCKLEY’S LUCKY STAR. Two cannibals found the sleeping man. Buckley must certainly have been; bom under a. lucky star, for these'two savages belonged to a tribe; having a curious superstition concerning white men.

“They believe,” said Buckley, “that when they die they go to some place •or other wheire they are made into white men ; and that they then return to this world again for another existence. They think all the white people, previous to death, belonged to thejr own tribe, thus returned to life; in a different colour.”

Moreover, the spear clasped in Buckley’s hand wa§ the very spear that had be,en left to mark the grave of their recently deceased, chief ; unhesitatingly the savages hailed the convict joyfully as, their reincarnated chief, and conducted him with great ceremony to the tribal village. For a time existence, as a “living dead ' chief” was peaceful. Then Buckley’s fears were aroused by the approach of a hostile tribe;. As; he watched, his followers smearing their bodies with clay, daubing their faces with red dye, and otherwise preparing for the coming fray, his heart sank, for he; well knew the fate awaiting him if captured—the enemy were also cannibals.. MARRYING A NATIVE WIFE. Victory, .ho.wever, fell to his own tribe*; but the result was almost as unpleasant, for the wretched convict found himself expected to join in feasting upon, the cho-cer morsels of the dead. With great difficulty he succeeded in evading this horrible revpast. But, as years passed, wars became more frequent, and Buckley gradually degenerated into the habits of a savage, going about naked, sleeping in the grass,-and joining in( their wild rites and customs.'

Eventually Buckley became so “acclimatised” as to choose a wife from among the dusky beauties of the tribe. Besides his position as chief, Buckley possessed other attractions for the gentler sex, for he had become expert with b‘°th boomerang and spear. The lady, he, relates, was “a young widow, about 20 years of age, tolerably good-looking after a fashion, aiHd apparently very mild-tempered.” True the bride was a cannibal, but the convict had grown hardened to the. sight of these; gruesome fasts. As years went by, however, the wife;tired ofi her wild husband, and one evening Buckley returned to his reed to find that his wife had disappeared, with a lover. The insult thus offered to their chief so infuriated some of the tribe that civil war broke out between them and the members: of the; woman’s family. Disgusted, Buckley ran away.

After 32 years of savage life, the. wretched wanderer espied a settlers’ camp on the far side of a lake. Deciding that even prison life would be preferable to his present existence, he threw himself upon the mercy of the settlers. But he, could noi longer make himself understood in English, and his appearance was such that the whitcj men took him for a savage.

At last, however, his power of speech returned, and ,'he was handed over to the authorities, who granted him a free pardon in; consideration of his usefulness as a go-between with the natives’.

Far 20 years Buckley lived the life of a useful citizen. Then, with Fate’s subtle irony, the man who .had survived the dangers of thq bush and cannibals succumbed to injuries received in falling frotn a cart!