Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from a report of the Council meeting of the Victorian Branch of the Geographical Society of Australasia held on 2 June 1886, Record (Emerald Hill, Vic), 4 June 1886, p. 3. The text is introduced by: 'The following correspondence was read—Extracts from letters received from Mr. H. O. Forbes to Baron von Mueller, received 31st May 1886:—'.

Port Moresby, New Guinea,

4th May, 1886.

Dear Baron Von Mueller:—

Yesterday I reached this place, I regret to write you, en route for England, unable to reach the Owen Stanley range for want of funds. I have gone to the utmost length of my resources, and am compelled for this reason alone to return. Accompanied by Mr. Chalmers, as I wrote you about a month ago,

2

See H. Forbes to M, 3 April 1886 (in this edition as 86-04-03a).

we made a push for the top. The task cannot be accomplished thus; but in the manner I had proposed before leaving England, by slow stages, by throwing forward camp in advancement of camp, bringing up food to each from the further-behind camp, as there are it seems no natives on or near the

flanks of the mountain. It has been impossible to send any collections down to the coast till now; even now it was with the greatest difficulty that I did get them down and landed safely here yesterday. Sir Edward Strickland long ago agreed to my construction of the wording of the agreement, and to my last letter to him, dated 18th December, in which I stated how impossible it is for me to give the second sets away till they have been selected according to my agreements with the British Museum in London.

3

Forbes had been sponsored by British bodies and was required to supply specimens to the relevant British organizations, the plants to the British Museum. When the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (RGSA) provided an additional subsidy of £500, it was a requirement that a full set be supplied to Australian organizations. The British Museum (Natural History) and M arranged that certain groups would be described in Britain and others by M; see, for example, M to W. Carruthers, 21 October 1885 (in this edition as 85-10-21a).

William Lawes reported that in Port Moresby Forbes formed 'an exact duplicate' of the plants he was taking for the British Museum and had sent them to M. Lawes also defended Forbes against some of the complaints made by the RGSA, stating that 'so far as I see Mr Forbes is adhering to the letter of his agreement' (W. Lawes to A. Macdonald, 7 May 1886 (A36, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Vic. Branch) papers, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney)). There are 357 Papua New Guinea specimens collected by Forbes indexed at MEL, but his collecting numbers extend to 912 (AVH, accessed 30 September 2023).

M to H. Ridley, 12 January 1887 (in this edition as 87-01-12d) indicates that M intended to describe only the groups for which he had responsibility.

For me, since 18th December there has been no possibility of postal communication till the end of February, and but one (if I mistake not) since then. There has consequently been little opportunity for making reports and writing letters. As soon as possible, therefore, the second sets will be forwarded to Australia, and as soon as I have been able to put in form the observations we made, I shall have the honour to send to the Geographical Society a copy of the report, together with the map of the district surveyed.