Our large colored engraving represents a scene of a somewhat romantic character which occurred in the early days of Victoria. It is a meeting which took place on the 12th July, 1835, between a wild white man who had been long associated with the blacks, and a party of the first white settlers. On the left of the picture we see the settlers who had come over from Tasmania, and some blacks they had brought with them from that island, though originally belonging to the Sydney side; the hut of the white men and the gunyah of the blacks are visible close to the sandy beach at a place on the shores of Port Phillip Bay, which, since the days of early settlement has been called Indented Heads. Both the whites and their black companions look with astonishment at the appearance of a man, gigantic in size, who is recognisable on the right of the picture clad in a kangaroo skin, and armed with the spears of the natives, and with a waddie or club. One of the settlers laying his arm on the shoulder of another points with mingled wonder and fear to the complexion of this gigantic visitor, neither black like the natives, nor white like the settlers; and, also, to some marks on his bare arm, which seem to indicate the possibility of his being a long lost country-man of their own. The tableau is very striking, and the story is one of the cherished traditions of the country.

WILLIAM BUCKLEY, THE WILD WHITE MAN OF VICTORIA

Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers (Melbourne), Sat., 24 April, 1869, page 91