Document information
Physical location:
Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 59.12.18Preferred Citation:
Karl Scherzer to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1859-12-18. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/59-12-18>, accessed September 11, 2025
1
MS is a printed letter with 'Novara-Expedition.' printed on the front. The letter
has been signed by Scherzer. The postscript is a handwritten inscription beneath the
signature.
MS found inserted in a copy of Victoria Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council, Session 1850, Bills.
Sir
I have great pleasure in informing You that the Imperial Austrian Expedition of Circumnavigation
of which I enjoyed the honour to be a member, has safely arrived home in August last,
after having visited during the whole cruise 21 different places, viz: Gibraltar,
Madeira, Rio Janeiro, Cape of Good Hope, St Paul and Amsterdam, Ceylon, Madras, Nicobar
islands, Singapore, Batavia, Manila, Hongkong, Canton, Macao, Shanghae, Pouynipet
(Caroline islands), Stewart islands, Sydney, Auckland (New Zealand), Society islands
and Chile.
The serious political state of affairs in Europe, which we learned only at our arrival
in Valparaiso,
decided the Commander in Chief of the Imperial Expedition, Commodore B. de Wuellerstorf, to give up all further projects of exploration and to return direct to Europe.
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Chile.
This resolution, although caused by the noble and anxious desire to be present and
ready when the threatened country should want to call him and those entrusted to his
leadership to another field of activity, — yet could not fail to produce, especially
amongst the naturalists on board, some disappointments, for it destroyed all our hopes
with respect to the continuation of our most interesting cruise.
In this sad disposition I applied to Commodore Wuellerstorf, that I might be permitted to return home with one of the Royal Mail Steamers by the
way of the Isthmus of Panama, under the condition to wait at Gibraltar for the arrival
of the frigate Novara, who sailed on the 11th of May direct for the straits round
Cape Horn.
This request was granted to me with that kindness and obligingness which the members
of the scientific commission were witnessing during the whole cruise from the part
of the Commander in Chief of the Expedition, and afforded me the most favourable opportunity
to see a great number of interesting places along the West-Coast of South America,
between Valparaiso and Panama, to spend more than a fortnight at Lima and to be moreover
able to render yet some services to science, while the Novara herself was already
under sail on her way home.
At Gibraltar I met again the frigate and returned on board of her to Trieste, where
we all safely arrived on the 26th of August a. c.
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this year.
The whole cruise lasted 849 days, out of which 551 days have been spent at sea and
298 days on shore. The number of miles sailed during this period amounts to 60,914
english miles. Our different collections of objects of natural history, embracing
all three kingdoms of nature, are considerable; they fill more than a hundred large
cases and are now about to be prepared, arranged and exhibited in the "Augarten",
one of the former Imperial summer-residences at Vienna.
Commodore Wuellerstorf, as well as the different members of the scientific commission on board the Imperial
frigate, are now busily engaged in publishing the rich literary material, which they
have gathered with the kind assistance of their learned friends in the different parts
of the globe they visited, and they are most generously supported in their endeavour
by the Imperial government and H. I. R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maxmillian, under whose noble auspices the Expedition was undertaken.
The nautical, astronomical, meteorological and magnetical observations and results,
in fact everything relative to the physical geography of the sea, shall be published
by Commodore Wuellerstorf himself or under his auspices.
With regard to the different branches of natural history, the zoological part shall
be published by Messrs Frauenfeld and Zelebor, the geological part by Dr. Hochstetter, the botanical and medical part by Dr. Schwarz.
My own department embraces ethnography and political economy; in short, man, in all
his relations to the external world. I have been moreover entrusted with the publication
of the descriptive part of our cruise, compiled from the extensive Journals of the
Commodore and my own. This book, written in a popular style and intended for a large
circulation will be illustrated with several hundred drawings selected from more that
two thousand sketches of the album of our artist, and is intended to be translated
into different languages.
It is the wish of H. I. R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maxmillian that all those gentlemen in the different parts of the world, who have so heartily
received the Novara-Expedition, and by their amiable concurrence have so much contributed
to its success, shall be presented with copies of the popular work as well as of the
scientific one, which latter shall be published in separate volumes, and most probably
completed in the course of three or four years.
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Scherzer (1861-2), published in English as Scherzer (1861-3), is the popular account; a technical report was published under the series title Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara um die Erde in den Jahren 1857, 1858,
1859 unter den Befehlen des Commodore B. von Wülerstorf-Ubair, see (
https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.1597
) with specialist reports under the authorship of individual writers or volume editors,
including those mentioned above. Schwarz, mentioned above, published the medical volume,
part 6 of the series, but did not publish on the botany, although a cryptogamic botanical
volume was edited by Fenzl and appeared in 1870 as part 3. M's copies of these works,
if he acquired them, are no longer in the library of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
By the above communications You will perceive that my task is a most difficult and
complicated one, and for this reason will be surely kind enough to excuse, when I
request You to assist me in the different publications which I am about to prepare,
by furnishing me as soon as possible with a short account of the most recent events of importance at your place, together with the newest statistical tables, comprising population,
productions, commercial movement, exports, imports, etc. etc. etc.
The surest way for any letter, package, or parcel to reach me is to direct it to the
care of the Imperial Austrian Admiralty at Trieste, which will also be so kind to
advance for me all the expenses that may have occurred by the shipping and forwarding.
In conclusion, I can only repeat that I shall always feel most happy to be in any
way of some service to You in this part of the world, and expecting to hear soon from
You, I beg to believe me with true esteem,
your most grateful
Dr Karl Scherzer
Ich erlaubte mir in Erhoffung der Gewährung meiner Bitte auch eine Quantität Insectnadeln
beizuschliessen. Dr C. v Felder
[I permitted myself in the expectation of the granting of my request to also enclose
a quantity of insect pins. Dr. C. von Felder.]