Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. For the text given here, see 'Further Traces of Dr. Leichhardt's Party', Age (Melbourne), 23 December 1864 (B64.14.04). The letter was republished a number of times including in the Australasian, 31 December 1864, p. 13, the Brisbane courier, 4 January 1865, and the Geelong advertiser, 24 December 1864, p. 2, where it was accompanied by critical comments. These comments were then reprinted in the Melbourne Herald, 26 December 1864, p. 2, and rebutted in M to the Editor of the Herald, 26 December 1864. Translations of the original letter were published in Süd-Australisiche Zeitung, 13 January 1865, p. 3 and elsewhere.

Sir, —

The return of our fellow colonist Mr Duncan M'Intyre, of Glengower, from a most important exploring journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria, during which our knowledge of the movements of Leichhardt and his party has been widely extended, prompts us to request your powerful support in a call on all Australia not to allow the fate of this intrepid, self-sacrificing, and perhaps not yet perished explorer to remain any longer concealed in mystery. The occasion is simultaneously afforded us, through the attentive courtesy of Mr M'Intyre, to promulgate in a brief outline the main results of the geographical achievements of this gentleman, who at once so brilliantly has entered on the eventful stage of Australian exploration, on which we shall still have to witness many a stirring scene. Mr M'Intyre started from the Paroo, travelled onwards to Cooper's Creek, which he crossed at latitude 26°10' S., followed it uo to 26° 50' S., and struck thence across north-westerly to a new important river, which he named in honor of the Rev. Joseph Docker, of Wangaratta, one of the most generous supporters of the original Victorian expedition.

2

i.e. the Burke & Wills Exploring Expedition, 1860-1.

From the Docker river, on a north-westerly course, Mr M'Intrye reached the Mueller river of Mr M'Kinlay, crossing this watercourse in 23° south. Continuing his north-western direction, he met about a degree further west, and in about 22° south, the very faint tracks of animals, seemingly either goats or sheep, and horses, or cattle, at a spot not known to have been traversed by any explorer. From hence, a system chiefly of granite mountains sends its ramifications in two main lines, S.W. and N.W. On a new principal tributary of the Flinders River, rising on the N.W. flank of this mountain-track, Mr M'Intyre passed to the main stream of the Flinders, observing in about 20° 40' S., and about one degree westward of Burke and Wills's track, two old horses, an event to which not too much importance can be attached, when it is remembered that neither the Victorian explorers, nor Landsborough, nor A. Gregory, nor Leichhardt, in his first glorious expedition, abandoned any horses in any adjacent locality, Mr Walker's horses being left about 300 miles to the east. A still more important discovery rewarded Mr M'Intyre's exertions after having reached, on the Flinders line, the Carpentaria Gulf; for on his return journey, whilst following up the main east branch of the Flinders river, he noticed on its western bank, in approximate latitude, 20° S., two trees, each bearing a large L, no number attached, as a mark, indicating, as we, with M'Intyre, feel convinced, a Leichhardtian camp. With this position, the traces of Leichhardt, recently found on the Alice River can be brought into a line of contact.

3

See M to R. Ellery, 15 December 1864 (in this edition as 64-12-15a).

These Ls are clearly distinct from any marks of Landsborough's camps, who in that latitude kept the eastern bank of the Flinders River, and who, moreover, attached a consecutive number to his marked camp-trees. If further proofs of distinction were wanting, we might add that the bark had encroached to the extent of four or five inches on the incision of the Ls, whereby a much greater age of the letters is established than that of Landsborough's camps; and still further we have the evidence of one of the natives, who served both in Landsborough's and M'Intyre's expedition, declaring the camp foreign to the expedition of the former gentleman. The position of these momentous trees being in flooded ground it would have been vain to search for further camp traces. Mr M'Intyre, in carrying out a judiciously arranged plan, went homeward near Landsborough's track, to the source of Bulla, and finally from this river to the Paroo, accomplishing in twenty weeks a journey, by which he has secured a prominent and honorable position amongst our explorers, and this by slender and entirely private means, accompanied only by one of his countrymen and five aborigines. Shall, whilst we can avail ourselves of the talents of tried and spirited travellers, like Mr M'Intyre and Mr Giles,

4

Ernest Giles.

the fate of one of the most famed explorers which the world ever possessed remain uncared for? Shall the destiny of him who, in Australia, discovered the "north-west passage,"

5

M frequently drew an unfavorable comparison between the few attempts to discover Leichhardt's fate and the vast resources put into the search for Sir John Franklin's expedition, lost in the Arctic while seeking a north-west passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.

remain still for an indefinite period unascertained? And shall the revelation of the fate of this truly great man be any longer left to the chances of mere accident?

Melbourne, 21st December, 1864.