Buckley, William (deported)

Born in the village of Marton, Cheshire, at Eliza Buckley, they later moved to Macclesfield . Had two sisters and a brother. He was brought up by his grandfather on the part of his mother, at the age of 15 he was apprenticed to a mason. At the age of 18 he entered the military service in the militia, and a year later - in the regular British army , he served in the infantry .

In 1799, in the Netherlands, his regiment participated in the battle against Napoleon . Buckley was wounded and declared unfit for service. Later in London, he was sentenced to hard labor for 14 years and to exile for the development of new lands in New South Wales for complicity in the theft of a piece of material ^[1] .

The ship “Calcutta” ( HMS Calcutta ) with the deported Buckley aboard sailed from England in April 1803 and in October of that year reached the shores of Australia in the area of ​​modern Sorrento . On December 27, 1803, Buckley and several other prisoners escaped in a boat, circled the bay and docked. Buckley's companions set off towards Sydney , and he alone continued on his way along the coastline of the bay.

For several weeks, Buckley avoided contact, but then, completely exhausted from hunger, he was met by one of the groups of Aborigines who mistook the fugitive for returning from the kingdom of the dead tribesman ^[4] . Buckley lived with the natives for 32 years, having learned from them the methods of hunting, fishing, gathering roots, etc. They were treated with respect, he had at least two Aboriginal wives and one daughter.

On July 6, 1835, Buckley appeared at the location of the Port Phillip John Batman Association camp, accompanied by Aboriginal people. At first he claimed to be a shipwrecked soldier, but told the truth a few days later. In September of the same year, he was granted pardon by Lieutenant Governor of the Land of Van Diemen, Sir George Arthur ^[5] .

Since 1836, Buckley returned to Western culture . For about a year he was a translator and accompanying person at the Port Phillip Association in dealing with Aboriginal people, but, in the end, lost the trust of both parties.

At the end of 1837 he moved to Tasmania in Hobart , where he changed several professions, including a security guard at the Cascades Female Factory in for women from 1841 to 1850. In 1840, he married Julia Igers, a widow, an immigrant from Ireland ^[1] . The then Governor of Tasmania, John Franklin , a famous traveler who assisted him in finding work ^[6] met with Buckley.

Buckley died in an accident in 1856.

According to researchers, William Buckley may be associated with the English phraseology “Buckley's chance” ( Russian chance Buckley ), which means a very small probability ^[7] . His name is called Buckleys Cave Cave in the Australian state of Victoria ^[8] . Based on his adventures, the novel by Alain Garner Strandloper was written in and the movie "Buckley's Chance" ^{[9] was} shot.

In Hobart, Buckley made friends with the publisher of the local newspaper, John Morgan, who wrote and edited the story of his life among the natives, and in 1852 published it as a separate book under the title:

"The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, by John Morgan," Tasmania, 1852.

Buckley's straightforward and frank narrative contained, on the one hand, a lot of interesting ethnographic details, objective and unbiased characteristics of indigenous Australians , and on the other, a significant number of factual errors and geographical inaccuracies.

• Buckley William. “Australian Robinson” (The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, narrated by John Morgan) / Per. from English R. M. Solodovnik. Ed. S. A. Tokareva . - M .: Nauka, The main edition of the Oriental literature, 1966. - 104 p.