Page:Life and Adventures of William Buckley.djvu/169

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146
LIFE OF BUCKLEY.

future husband, and we were married by the Rev. Mr. Ewing, the Episcopalian Clergyman at New Town, in the month of March, 1840.

Soon after this, I was attacked by typhus fever, and lay many days suffering very much; it being the only severe illness I had undergone in all my life. The kind attentions I received from my wife and her daughter however, under the merciful providence of God, at length restored me to health, but not to such health as I had previously enjoyed; my privations and exposure in the bush, with increased years, having, no doubt, materially damaged my naturally strong constitution.

In the year 1850, there was an alteration in the establishment at the Nursery, and I was paid off by the Convict Department, my services being no longer required, with a pension of twelve pounds per annum. With this small sum, for which I feel grateful, under all the circumstances of my case, and the industry of my wife and daughter, we contrive to live humbly and honestly; but I do entertain a hope, that something will be done for me by the local authorities of Port Phillip—now the great and wealthy colony of Victoria—when, by the means of this narrative of my life, my sufferings, services, and wants, are better, and more generally known.

My narrative is now at its close; let its details of dangers and privations serve as a moral to the young and reckless,—to all who, passing unheeded the admonitions of parents, guardians, and friends, rush heedlessly on the future, with all its trials and consequences,