Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The search for Dr. Leichhardt', Brisbane courier, 10 April 1865, p. 2 (B65.04.02). The same text was published in the Brisbane courier a second time, a week later (see B65.04.03). The letter followed one from the Ladies’ Leichhardt Committee also appealing for support for a Leichhardt search expedition. The letters are introduced with the following comment: ‘we trust that the appeals contained in them to the colonists of Queensland for assistance, will meet with that cordial response which has been accorded to them in the colony of Victoria’.

Sir,—

Nothing, esteemed Sir, could surpass the exalted sentiments, the manly language, and the clear appreciation of our position towards poor Leichhardt, which dictated your appeal on the 9th of this month.

2

See Brisbane courier, 9 March 1865, p. 2: 'The eloquent appeal of Dr. Ferdinand Mueller to the people of Australia for a renewed search to ascertain Leichhardt's fate cannot be allowed to pass without our hearty recommendation…'.

— Now, since the free progress-demanding guardians of public duty, enterprise, and welfare, like you have strengthened in a manner absolutely touching to myself the position which the imploring noble-hearted ladies of Victoria have occupied, now it will be for the great Australian communities, and more especially for that standing most deeply in Leichhardt's debt, not to leave the ladies now toiling for the furtherance of the explorer's search unaided. Whatever, Sir, is to be done, let it be done without wasteful procrastination, and apathetic evasion of our duty. Those who have ever been eager to occupy Leichhardt's territory, have never yet been eager to place beyond doubt the reality of his death. That liberality characterising your Government, avowedly acknowledged in highest quarters of your own, could have no more legitimate object of its bestowal than the transcendant enterprise initiated and fostered by the Victorian ladies. If your Senate responded to the ladies' call of sharing in the expenditure of their expedition, it would be but an act of reciprocity towards Victoria, whoso recent explorations beyond its boundaries involved monetary sacrifices exceeding those rendered by Queensland for the aid of our missing explorers more than eighty-fold. Should not, then, some spirited member of your Legislature rise to advocate Leichhardt's cause, so exaltingly pleaded by the gentle and fair of this land? Should, above all, any occupant of Leichhardt's territory, and any one deriving advantages from its occupation, exclude himself with icy feelings from supporting the great cause? If every occupant of that territory would merely send to the ladies the earnings of a single day, if even every one of the pastoral tenants of Leichhardt's country would spare the fleece of a single sheep, the speedy realisation of the enterprise would be secured. If the Queensland territory, one in which every great physical feature will be eternally identified with Ludwig Leichhardt, in which almost every important river and prominent range is speaking of the forsaken explorer, if this territory was still a dependency of New South Wales, the same spirit which prompted the rulers of the maternal colony to send twice its bands of enquirers into the field for lifting the veil from Leichhardt's fate, that noble spirit which bestowed on Leichhardt's mother the means of living through her sorrowful aged days free of external wants, that spirit would never allow in their territory a mystery such as surrounds Leichhardt's fate now to continue unascertained. Is it, Sir, not absolutely dreadful—now after Macintyre’s

3

Duncan McIntyre.

demonstrations—to contemplate that we drew the pall over his image without ever seeing the slightest trace of a relic bearing testimony of Leichhardt's death? Has Queensland ever reflected what must now be the feelings of the mother and sister of him whose memory they cherish in pride, love, and tenderness? And what those feelings would be, if Australia, after the last hopeful revelations, continued in unstirring inactivity? Will really not some of the high-minded ladies of your colony muster moral courage to stand up in their irresistible power of dignity to vindicate by active charity the attitude of your country, in this elevating enterprise of their sisters? Will not your Surveyor-General,

4

Augustus Gregory.

a most worthy man, on whom Leichhardt has now far above all the highest claim for sympathy, will he not exercise that famed knowledge and experience—that influence and judgment to which your colonists would bow, in throwing the weight of the authority he undeniably possesses in favor of a fellow-explorer into the scale, or will that great geographer risk an honorably earned fame to be clouded by tacitly sharing in the neglect towards a brother traveller? Of his generous disposition I experienced enough in past memorable days, so that I think the ladies could now reckon on the exercise of his powerful aid. Here in Victoria even children, inspired by a noble hearted task, are eagerly collecting their spare shillings for "the great and good man!" Will the volunteers display that chivalrous spirit which is their greatest strength and ornament, and promote by a collection-gift the search? It is, Sir, the ladies feel it with pride and delight, impossible to stem the flood of their movement. If Australia attempted it, Europe would not permit it; hence let humanity alone dictate the measures. The ladies cause should be luminated by sparks of sympathy in all directions. Wherever intelligence reigns, from the throne to the cottage, judgment on that what should be a bright point in our history will be pronounced. Let us be guardful that this judgment of the world is not dealing out some crushing death-blows on the fame of the gratitude and generosity of the Australian nation.

Botanic Garden of Melbourne, April 3,1865.