Ferdinand von Mueller

See M to G. Berry, 11 January 1881.

Enclosure not found. The issue of the Government Gazette for 11 April 1881 is a single page, an election writ for a seat in Victoria’s Legislative Council that had become vacant. It has no obvious relevance to Behm or to Petermann’s journal. However in the preceding Gazette, issued on 8 April, there is an extensive Notice to Mariners, pp. 1003-9, which is the sort of literature often included by Behm in the ‘Geographische Literatur’ section of Petermann’s journal.

Skuthorpe had claimed to have found the grave of one of Leichhardt's companions on his last expedition, Classen, and relics of the expedition, but when pressed failed to produce anything. The following paragraph was published in Petermann's geographische Mittheilungen, 1881, vol. 27, p. 278 (B81.06.03):

Baron Ferd. v. Mueller in Melbourne schrieb uns am 12. April: Skuthorpe's Aussagen über seine angebliche Auffindung von Reliquien der Leichhardt'schen Expedition scheinen sich als ganz unbewährt zu erweisen. Ich werde mich nun an die Ministerien der vier Hauptkolonien Australiens wenden, um die Mittel für eine neue Nachforschung nach Leichhardt zu erlangen, und hat der Premier der Colonie Victoria bereits seine Bereitwilligkeit zur Gewährung des entsprechenden Geldbeitrags erklärt. Mr. Ernest Giles hat sich erboten, die Führung der neuen Expedition zu übernehmen und die Gegend, wo nach Hume und Skuthorpe Spuren Leichhardt's gefunden wurden, einschliesslich des Landes nördlich vom Eyre- und Amadeus-See, zu beiden Seiten der transcontinentalen Telegraphenlinie, zu durchsuchen. Sollte er auch in Bezug auf Leichhardt's Schicksal keine Aufklärungen bringen, würde das Unternehmen doch einen willkommenen Beitrag zur geographischen Kenntniss Australiens liefern.

[Baron Ferd. v. Mueller writes to us on 12 April: Skuthorpe's statements about his supposed discovery of relicts of the Leichhardt expedition seem to have turned out to be completely unconfirmed. I will now turn to the ministers of the four main colonies to obtain funds for a new search for Leichhardt and the Premier of the Colony of Victoria has already declared his willingness to the granting of an appropriate financial contribution. Mr Ernest Giles has offered to undertake the leadership of the new expedition and to search the region where traces of Leichhardt were found according to Hume and Skuthorpe, including the country north of Lakes Eyre and Amadeus, to both sides of the transcontinental telegraph line. Even if he should bring no explanation in reference to Leichhardt's fate, the undertaking would certainly produce a welcome contribution to the geographical knowledge of Australia.]

The letter is followed in the file by a handwritten copy of a letter from Skuthorpe to Sir Bryan O'Loghlen, 10 September 1881 (in this edition as M81-09-10), and two unidentified newspaper clippings. The file also includes one of M's visiting cards. One of the clippings publishes a letter from Skuthorpe to Sir Henry Parkes, very similar in content to his letter to O'Loghlen; for a transcription, see note to the letter to O'Loghlen. The other clipping, to which a typewritten transcription is attached, is based on an item published in the London evening standard, 24 November 1881, p. 5. It reads as follows:

— Der Forschungsreisende Leichhardt.

Der "Standard" veröffentlicht eine weitere Zuschrift des Hrn. J. Henniker Heaton, derzufolge mit der letzten australischen Post fernere Nachrichten über die angebliche Auffindung der Leichhardt'schen Effecten und Tagebücher eingegangen sind. Die Regierung von Neu Südwales habe sich bereit erklärt, dem J. R. Skuthorpe die von demselben verlangte Summe von 6000 Pfd. St. für die erwähnten Sachen zu bezahlen, unter der Bedingung, dass deren Authenticität über allen Zweifel durch gewisse Beweise festgestellt wird. Skuthorpe hat einen Abriss des Inhalts der Tagebücher, Angaben über den Tod Leichhardt's und den Lebenslauf eines seiner Gefährten — Classen's — unter den Schwarzen eingesandt, welche, wenn sie sich als wahr bewähren, an schmerzlichem Interesse Alles zu übertreffen versprechen, was zur australischen Geschichte durch nachfolgende Gruppen australischer Helden, selbst Robert O`Hara Burke und William John Wills nicht ausgenommen, beigetragen worden ist.

[The Explorer Leichhardt.

The "Standard" publishes a further letter of Mr J. Hennicker Heaton, according to which further information about the alleged discovery of the Leichhardt effects and diaries has arrived with the last Australian post. The Government of New South Wales has declared itself prepared to pay J. R. Skuthorpe the sum of 6000 pounds Sterling demanded by him for the said items, provided that their authenticity is confirmed beyond all doubt by certain proofs. Skuthorpe has sent in a summary of the contents of the diaries, accounts of the death of Leichhardt and the career of his companion, Classen, among the Blacks, which, if proved true, promises to surpass in painful interest everything that has been contributed to Australian history by subsequent groups of Australian heroes, not excepting even Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills.]