124 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



ings about the possibility of a descent of the blacks upon their 

 undefended camp, and doubtless were not altogether without fear 

 that Batman might suddenly appear in force and expel them. But 

 the natives apparently did not possess the warlike instincts which had 

 distinguished the aborigines of Van Diemen's Land, and when the 

 emissaries of Batman did come, they took no overt action of hostility. 

 It is desirable here to revert to the proceedings of Batman's 

 men in possession during the period that Fawkner's party had 

 been establishing themselves on the Yarra. Early in July, 1835, 

 about a month after the departure of their leader, the little en- 

 campment on Indented Head was thrown into a state of excitement 

 by the discovery that a huge, shambling savage, who seemed to 

 exercise some influence over the dusky warriors around them, con- 

 cealed beneath a swarthy coating of grease and dirt the white skin 

 of an Englishman. Clad in a shapeless garment of skins, with 

 a few spears in one hand and a "waddy" in the other, he stood 

 tongue-tied before Gumm and his companions, but with a certain 

 wistful appealing look in the eyes that seemed to crave some re- 

 cognition. When they asked him who he was, he did not at first 

 comprehend their meaning, but suddenly it dawned upon him, and 

 failing words he eagerly displayed to them a W. B. tattooed on his 

 arm. Gradually such poor senses as he had awakened out of the 

 torpor in which they had lain for over thirty years, and he recognised 

 faint echoes of the past in a few monosyllabic words. Batman's 

 men supposed him to be a shipwrecked sailor, and they at once 

 offered him the hospitality of the "fort". Under the civilising 

 influences of tea and biscuit, probably aided by a modicum of rum, 

 Buckley found his mother-tongue, and by degrees his story, or 

 as much of it as he chose to tell, was pieced out. The camp was 

 glad to have him as a medium of communication with the natives, 

 and, possibly with a view to magnifying his office, he intimated that 

 his late associates were concocting a plot to murder the party and 

 seize all the stores for themselves. He alleged that he prevailed 

 upon them to abandon the idea by stating that a ship, which was 

 now daily expected from Launceston, would bring them presents in 

 even greater abundance than they could get by fighting. At any 

 rate, they remained peacefully enough about the camp, and on the 



