Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/153

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LIFE OF BUCKLEY.

fully committed and sent to Sydney for trial, there being no competent tribunal at Port Phillip.—He was acquitted, as no person could clearly prove the identity of the deceased, and other necessary particulars in cases of life and death.

Soon after this, Governor Bourke visited us, with several of the Civil and Military Officers of the New South Wales Government. As good a parade as possible was made to receive him, myself having the charge of about one hundred natives ranked up in line, soldier fashion, and saluting him by putting their hands to their foreheads as I directed.

His Excellency told me to say to them, if they were quiet and orderly they should have presents of bread, blankets, and tomahawks; all which promises were faithfully kept within a very few hours after he had landed.

The Governor having expressed a desire to see something of the interior, I was ordered to attend him, with an escort; and crossing the Yawang Plains, we reached the Marrabul, now called the Esk River, the first night, there pitching our tents. The night following we halted near the Yallock, where we again bivouacked, remaining there several days; his Excellency, the Surveyor-General and others, taking me with them, and moving in various directions, expressing great delight at all they saw of the country in that quarter. The natives we met with in these excursions, were, through me, assured by the Governor, that if they came to the settlement, and avoided committing any offences against