WITH WILD CANNIBALS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19838, 7 January 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

WITH WILD CANNIBALS.

ESCAPED CONVICT'S LIFE. , A REMARKABLE STORY. ADVENTURES WITH SAVAGES. Wife that disappeared. " One hour of glorious liberty is worth a whole eternity of bondage." Is this the thought that lures so many convicts to essay escape?, says a.writer in John o London's Weekly. Certainly the' year 1927, has 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, however, escaped prisoners have frequently succeeded in remaining at large for years. Most amazing of all was the case of the celebrated " Wild White Man" of Australia, who, after starving in the bush, lived for thirty-two years with cannibals, and even took a cannibal as wife, before surrendering to the authorities and dictating his romantic experiences for publication in the form of his biography. Hardly a literary production, but a thrilling narrative. William Buckley, private soldier, had already at twenty-two seen active service and been wounded when he was convicted at Gibraltar in 1802 for conspiring to shoot the Duke of Kent, and transported to the convict settlement 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.

For seven days, saved from absolute starvation by occasional shell-fish, the three men wandered on until Buckley's companions, 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 melons. Days passed. Then suddenly he came face to face "with three armed savages. Escape was impossible. Luckily Buckley's great height—he was six feet five—overawed these pygmy aboriginals, and they made friendly overtures. " One made up a large fire," relates the convict in his autobigraphy, " another threw off his rug and went into the sea for crayfish, which, on his return, ho threw alive into the flame, at the same time looking at me with an expression as much a3 to indicate that they intended to grill me next, by way of a change of diet." Having shared the fish with the white man, they escorted Buckley to their grass huts, where he passed a sleepless nignt 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 himself down, spear in hand, beneath a tree, 'l'hat spear was to save his life. Buckley's Lucky Star.

Two cannibals found the sleeping man. Buckley must certainly have been born under a lucky star, for these two savages belonged to a tribe having a curious superstition concerning white men. " They belie ee," said Buckley, " that when they die they go to some place or othei where 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 their own tribe,- thus, returned to life in a different colour."

Moreover, the spear clasped in Buckley's hand was the very spear that had been left to mark the grave of their recently deceased chief; unhesitatingly the Bavages hailed the convict joyfully as their reincarnated chief, and conducted him with great ceremony, to the trjbal 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. 1 Marrying A Native Wife. Victory, however, 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 choicer morsels of the dead. With great difficulty he succeeded in evading this horrible repast. But, as years passed, wars became more frequent, and Buckley gradually degenerated into the habit:i 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 both boomerang and spear. The lady, ho relates, was " a young widow, about twenty years of age, tolerably good-looking after a fashion, and apparently * very mildtempered." True, the bride was a cannibal, but the convict had grown hardened to the sight of these gruesome feasts. As years went by, however, the wife tired of her wild husband, and one evening Buckley returned to his reed hut to find that hiswife 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. Back to Civilisation. After thirty-two 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 no longer make himself understood in English, and his appearance was such that the white 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. For twenty years Buckley lived the life of a useful citizen. Then", with Fate's subtle irony, the man who had survived the dangers of the bush and cannibals, succumbed to injuries received in falling from a cart!