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65.06.20Preferred Citation:
William Branwhite Clarke to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1865-06-20. 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//letters/1860-9/1865/65-06-20-final.odt>, accessed June 9, 2026
1
Letter not found. For the text given here, see Australasian, 1 July 1865, p. 14, under the heading, 'Exploration. The Search for Leichardt',
where it is introduced as follows: 'A very interesting letter has been received by
Dr. Mueller from the Rev. W. B. Clarke, the distinguished geologist, from which we
are permitted to publish the following extracts'.
Letter not included in Moyal (2003).
June 20, 1865.
My dear Dr. Mueller,
I may appear to you to have treated with some kind of indifference the enormous efforts
you are making to obtain information respecting the fate of my lamented friend Leichardt,
inasmuch as I have not sooner responded to your letter, and the communication from
the ladies of the committee formed in Melbourne. It is not material to the end in
view to explain by what accidents I have been hindered in making an earlier acknowledgement.
You will, however, I doubt not understand, that this delay has arisen from no want
of regard to yourself, or want of respect to the committee of ladies, and certainly
from no coolness in my feelings towards the object which I long ago advocated, although
in vain.
I read your lecture
with great admiration of the glowing enthusiasm and zeal with which you advocated
a further search for the long-lost traveller. I also read the letter addressed to
you by Mr. Gideon Lang,
who adopts your view that Leichardt may be yet living, and who considers that an
attempt ought to have been made long ago to ascertain that fact.
2
B65.02.01.
3
G. Lang to M, 20 April 1865.
It is only in justice to my own exertions in the cause you are now advocating, that
I would remind you, that such an attempt was made seven years ago. In the year 1858
I entered upon a full discussion of the course which I presumed must have been taken
by Leichardt, pointing out that he first travelled north before he went to the west.
The letters in which I discussed this question were published in the Sydney Morning Herald, and they elicited various comments. At that time nothing was known of the geography
of the districts which I supposed Leichardt must have traversed, and I was anxious
that that part of the country should be explored. Since then, different expeditions
have been undertaken, and through them the character of the region has been made known.
4
‘Leichhardt and the Desert’, Sydney morning herald, 24 August 1858, pp. 4-5.
It is very satisfactory to me that I did not mistake the question, and that in that
very region traces of Leichardt have been found. I did not, however, content myself
with this discussion. I appealed, on 16th September, 1858, to the Government of New
South Wales, requesting that further steps be taken to clear up the mystery attached
to the fate of Leichardt, and to explore the country between 25° and 18° south latitude
and between 144° and 148° east longitude.°
It has been to me a source of deep regret, that these seven years have been wasted,
because, of necessity, the chance of discovering Leichardt's track becomes so much
the less. But the friends of the present movement will see that, individually, I did
all I could to awaken a proper feeling in the public mind in behalf of such a movement.
I am glad that you have been able to plead this cause with a greater prospect of success.
Perhaps much of this is due to the advocacy of the fair band who have rallied round
you on this occasion.
The explorations of the last seven years have done something to encourage a hope of
success. If we may believe the statements that have been made, Leichardt has been
traced to within 600 miles of the north-west coast, where, I still think, as I have
always thought, he long ago arrived. I cannot say I think he is still living. But
it is a question involving so many subjects of interest that the discovery of the
spot which he finally reached is scarcely inferior to the discovery of his actual
fate. You, who have traversed so large a portion of Northern and North-Western Australia,
need not be reminded of the difficulties which would beset any traveller not well
fortified, making his way along that side of the continent towards Perth.
5
During the North Australian Exploring Expedition, 1855-6.
Believing that Stuart, who had many and serious conflicts with the aborigines, and
found them extremely hostile and violent, actually obtained evidence of Leichardt's
progress, in spite of such harassing difficulties, to within 430 miles of A. C. Gregory's
most southern point, it is clear to me our great traveller had materially reduced
the obstacles before him. But I conceive that it was not till he had got so far that
his greatest trials began.
We know now that the continent up to Stuart's route is not all desert. Nevertheless,
there are 500 miles of country between A. C. Gregory's farthest southern point in
your expedition of 1855-6 and F. T. Gregory's most northern point in his expedition
of 1861. Those 500 miles appear to me almost insurmountable; and had Leichardt crossed
them, and had come within what may now be called the settled portion of the northern
part of West Australia—say about Nichol Bay—he would still have had to encounter enormous
hardships and dangers, ill-furnished as he was with supplies.
You will observe that I consider him to have travelled along the 21st parallel, or
near it; and this, in fact, would have been his shortest route.
I would suggest, therefore, now, that, as we have two points—one on the Flinders,
the other near MacDonnell's Range of Stuart—in which there is little doubt traces
of Leichardt's expedition have been found, it would be better to have the proposed
expedition commenced on the Flinders and carried through about 21st parallel towards
the coast before sloping off to Nichol Bay.
To perform this task will require a man of uncommon energy, skill, and patience, and
I sincerely hope that your choice may have fallen on an explorer suitable to the work.
The next topic is one on which, I fear, I can offer but little encouragement, from
the state of general apathy in this colony. There is a persuasion that it would be
useless to look for Leichardt himself, and this, no doubt, operates at a time of considerable
pecuniary depression, in checking the generally excitable liberality of the colonists
of New South Wales.
I am at a greater loss to account for the indifference of Germans in this community.
It can hardly be in such a case, that they would overlook the sentiment which replies
to the question, Was ist Deutschen Vaterland? by the concluding words of Arndt's spirited poem—
"Vas gunze Deutschland
Soll es seyn!"
6
Typesetter’s error for ‘Das ganze Deutschland soll es seyn!’, the last line, ‘It should
be the whole German-speaking land’, of Ernst Moritz Arndt’s poem, ‘Was ist des Deutschen
Vaterland?’ [What is the German fatherland]. The poem was written in 1813 as a call
for the unity of all German-speaking people against Napoleon and for the future.
Whatever may be the reason of this, you will allow me in all sincerity and hope to
say, gluck auf!
7
Good luck!
Believe me, my dear, most learned, and energetic friend, yours very sincerely,
W. B. Clarke.
F. Mueller, Esq., P. and M.D., &c.
P.S. I saw the list at Mr. Aldis's today.
It contained two names—that of the Belgian Consul, I think, and my own; but I heard
he had two or three promises.
8
William Henry Aldis.
I have written to Mr. Bromby today. If there be anything in this letter which you
may wish to communicate to the committee, it is at your service to do what you will.
9
The following paragraph is printed after Clarke's letter: 'Mr. Donald Campbell, of
Glengower, deserves much credit for the spirited and disinterested manner in which
he completed in the metropolis all arrangements for the Leichardt search, acting on
behalf of his nephew, Mr. M'Intyre, who takes command of the expedition. Those members
of the party who are not yet with Mr. M'Intyre, on the Darling, are required to be
at Glengower by the end of this week, from whence they will then start with the camels
and horses for Mount Murchison without delay. Provisions will be brought from one
of the Queensland ports to the source of the Thomson River. For the […] keeping of
the dromedaries the colony is indebted to the Messrs. Samuel and Charles Wilson, of
the Wimmera.'