Ferdinand von Mueller

LADIES'

LEICHARDT

1

i.e. Leichhardt.

SEARCH COMMITTEE

Melbourne

Christmas day 1865.

It affords me sincere pleasure, venerable and dear Sir, to reply to some very kind lines which not very long ago you were pleased to address to me.

2

Letter not found.

Let me in first instance express my cordial acknowlegement of the sympathy you evince towards poor Leichhardt, a sympathy of which the friends of the explorer traveller will be proud. To me Leichhardts fate appears much more hopeful than that of poor Crozier, and yet Britain is not likely to leave the rumour concerning the possible existence of a few of Franklins gallant band to pass without further investigations.

3

The Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin's last expedition was in search of the North-West Passage. The two ships Erebus and Terror, the latter under the command of Capt Francis Crozier, were last seen in July 1845. Commencing in 1848, numerous expeditions were mounted to search for the missing explorers. In 1859, abandoned ships, clothing, equipment and skeletons were found, with a note in Crozier's hand that he and the other survivors — Franklin having died — were about to start out for the Fish River. With no definite proof that this party had perished, hopes that they had somehow survived persisted. A letter from C. F. Hall to Henry Ginnell written in December 1864, suggesting that the Inuit had seen and possibly saved three of the crew, was quoted in The Times (London) in its general American news section on 12 October 1865; discussion of Hall's expedition was printed throughout the month, including on 21 October a letter from Allen Young in which he wrote that while he felt Hall's report should be treated with caution, 'Let him only give us good hope, of any of our countrymen being yet alive, and officers and men…as well as hundreds of others…will again come forward…and undoubtedly an expedition, if not public, at least private, would be at once sent to the rescue' (The Times, 21 October 1865, p. 6).

I regretted ever much, that during my stay in Adelaide I deprived myself of the honor of becoming personally acquainted with the greatest Australian Explorer.

4

During M's early years in Adelaide, Sturt, following the hardships of his journey into the interior, 1844-6, was SA's Colonial Treasurer and then Colonial Secretary,.

You were then suffering after your great exertions in the interior from impaired sight, and being myself then a very young & comparatively unknown man, who had done nothing but carried out the botanical survey of a part of the Dukedom of Schleswig

5

M's 1847 PhD thesis was a survey of the flora of southern Schleswig. Part, at least, was subsequently published; see B53.08.01, B53.08.02.

I did not wish to intrude. Should ever I have an opportunity to visit Europe (but this is most improbable) I shall not fail to wait on you & express the admiration I entertain for your great labours in Australian Geography, which will for ever identify you, dear Capt Sturt, with the history of this country. Different seasons must impress on the interior very different features. In a year like this the graphic description given by you of the stony desert will be most applicable. In my 25000 miles of varied landjourneys in Australia I have seen enough of the effects of an arid & a wet season to reconcile the discrepancies in the accounts of our geographic pioneers. The aridity of the last year and a half impedes much the movement of M’Intyre’s caravane, but from the 20°northwards the search party will enjoy on a westerly course the tropical summerrains of which Leichhardt himself wished to benefit.

[…]

6

MS ends at bottom of sheet without valediction.