The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-01
WILD WHITE MEN.

Derelicts in Australia Who Preceded
 Louis De Rougemont.
 The meteoric appearance in our midst of a gentleman named Louis de Rougemont, with marvellous story of hitherto unheard of adventures during an alleged residence of some thirty years with the blacks of northern Aus tralia, revives recollections of the wild white men" that from time to time have fallen into the hands of the unciv- ilized Australian aborlgines and been restored to white humanity after long years of separation and degradation. In the present unsatisfactory condition of the libel laws it would not be pru- dent to say more of the alleged Rouge montain adventures and experiences than that they have aroused consider able scepticism in the minds of many well informed Australians. The gen. eral impression in colonial circles is that they are largely superstructure of romance based upon small founda- tion of reality. It is little less than in- credible that a man in the opened up Australia of our time should have lived for three decades among the blacks, and rescued two white women from their clutches, without a word of his existence or his sensational service to beauty in distress coming to the knowl- edge of the very wideawake Australian press. Louis de Rougemont' has dropped down upon us as If from balloon.
 TNha fpSts rnpnrIa1 wild white n was William Buckley native of Mac clesfeld, and at the close of the last century soldier in the 4th, or Kings Own regiment. On December 24, 1902, in company with six other soldiers, he was involved in an attempt on the life of the Duke of Kent He was sentenc- ed to transportation for life and taken out in a convict ship to the Antipodes During brief stay at the head of what is now the harbor of Melbourne he contriVed to escape in company with two other convicts. The latter perish ed-how was never ascertained-and when Buckley was subsequently, ques- toned as to their fate he was exceed ingly reticent and disconcerted. That it was a case of cannibalism was the Stlltl ctl ptilCL Ol tlit tetIiN SeIlltlS . around Melbourne. Anyhow, in the last stages of hunger and privation, Buck ley lay down on what proved to be the grave of recently buried chief. Luck fly for him the widow came along and superstitiously concluded that her dear departed had returned to life in the 1 shape of white man. She promptly annexed him as her own, led him to the camp of the blacks, explained the 1 circumstances under which she had | found him, and secured his admission l as a chief of the tribe, a position for which he was physically well qualified as he was a man of great stature G feet ' inches), strength and endurance.
 For the next thirty-two years Buck l ley led the life of a savage, hunting. 1 fishing and fighting with the tribe that | adopted him. He does not appear to 1 have taught the blacks anything or raised them in any degree in the scale of civilization. He simply became one | of themselves and adapted himself to | his new environment in every respect perhaps his best and wisest course un- der the circumstances. It was on July F. 1885, that he saw white face for the first time after lapse of more than thirty years. On that day the pioneer of the city of Melbourne landed from their little schooner, and Buckley ad- vanced to meet them. He had by this time become but little superior to the savages around him, but the newcom- CTS noticed the comparatively light col or of his skin. He tried to summon up | n, 1;1l, his memory, and at last he succeeded in | articulating the word bread" He made himself very useful as an inter- preter between the new white settlers and the blacks, and when his story reached London the imperial authori- ties magnanimously drew the sponge over his offense and sent him a free | pardon. He enjoyed small pension in | his later years, and lived until Febru- l ary 2, 1856, when he was thrown out | of cart and killed in his seventy sixth year. The site of the present town of i Gee1ong about forty miles from Mel bourne was the headquarters of the 1 tribe to which Buckley was attached during his three decades of savage life | Three miles from Geelong there is still | 1 he is said to have resided, and the ad- | lacent rapids continue to perpetua1e his name as Buckley's Falls.
 ! James Morrill,, a native of Maldon, Es- sex. was the sole survivor of the ship wreck of the bark Peruvian, that struck on a reef off the northeastern coast of i Queensland on March 8. 1S46 He lived with the Queensland blacks until his rescue in February, 1863. Another ship wrecked sailor, John Re-ton by name 1 was with the Queensland blacks for i an even longer period, twenty years. ! The story of little cabin boy named | Narcisse Pierre Pallatier ought to have i attracted the attention of the boys i noveIists long before now. He engaged as cabin boy on the St. Paul, bound