John Morgan was a 19th-century Australian settler and chronicler best known for his authorship of The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, a remarkable biographical narrative ba...voir plusJohn Morgan was a 19th-century Australian settler and chronicler best known for his authorship of The Life and Adventures of William Buckley, a remarkable biographical narrative based on the firsthand account of Buckley himself. William Buckley was an escaped English convict who lived for 32 years among the Wathaurong people of southeastern Australia, assimilating into Aboriginal culture and surviving in the wilds of Victoria. Morgan, recognizing the value of Buckley’s unique story, recorded it in vivid detail upon the former convict’s reintegration into colonial society. The book blends ethnographic observation with personal memoir, offering one of the earliest sustained European descriptions of Aboriginal life from a sympathetic insider perspective. While questions remain about the precise accuracy of certain details, Morgan’s role in preserving Buckley’s extraordinary tale has ensured that it remains a foundational text in the early literature of settler-colonial Australia and in the broader understanding of Indigenous-settler relations.voir moins
The Life and Adventures of William Buckley: Thirty-two Years a Wanderer Amongst the Aborigines of Then Unexplored Country Round Port Phillip, Now the Province of Victoria