Ferdinand von Mueller

1

For Kyte's identity as the 'unknown donor', see Bonyhady (1991) p. 10. Letter not found. For the text given here see B60.14.04. See also Circular, 5 August 1859.

AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION

To the Unknown Donor of £1,000.

Sir —

We have the honour to announce to you, through His Honour the Chief Justice, Sir William Stawell, that your munificent offer of £1,000 for Australian exploration has met with a hearty response from all classes in Victoria, and that we have succeeded in raising by private subscription the stipulated sum of £2,000 within the stipulated period of 12 months.

In thus announcing to you that we are in a position to claim your munificent gift of £1,000, we pray you on behalf of every colonist of Victoria, to accept the assurance of our grateful esteem, and of our warmest acknowledgements; and although your name is still withheld from us, we cannot withhold our admiration of your unostentatious patriotism and disinterested zeal in the cause of science.

We confidently believe that the valuable assistance which you have rendered to the cause of science and Australian progress will at no distant period be rewarded by a wide extension of our geographical knowledge of those vast central regions of Australia which have been hitherto cut off from the civilised world, and still remain untrodden by the foot of civilised man. And we feel assured that it will ever be to you a source of unmingled satisfaction that you have so successfully initiated in Victoria a movement in favour of exploration, which we are fully justified in believing will be attended with the happiest and most successful results.

Melbourne, September 5, 1859.