The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 24 November 1866. ¶ ¶ Enclosed, esteemed Professor, you receive the diary of the late traveller McIntyre. ¶ It will show you how great a loss we suffered with the death of this man. I hope soon to b...

Document information

Physical location:

Sammlung Perthes Archiv, SPA ARCH PGM 328, Forschungsbibliothek Gotha der Universität Erfurt. 66.11.24

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to August Petermann, 1866-11-24. 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/66-11-24>, accessed September 11, 2025

MS annotation by Petermann: 'Erh. 21. Jan. 1867' [Received 21 January 1867]. For a published version of this letter, see Voigt (1996), p. 82.

24/11/66.

Beigefügt erhalten Sie, verehrter Herr Professor, des dahingeschiedenen Reisenden McIntyres Journal, welches Ihnen zeigen wird welchen grossen Verlust wir in diesem Manne erlitten. Ich hoffe Ihnen bald weitere Depeschen von der Expedition die nach Leichhardt forscht, senden zu können.

Stets der Ihre

Ferd. Mueller.

Ich hoffe Ihre Nordpol Unternehmung wird glorreich ausgefallen sein.

28/11/66.

Leider ist das ganze Journal nicht bis zum Postabgang gedruckt.

Ich habe in meinem Laboratorium den Gerbstoffgehalt unserer Rinden, die Essigsäure, den Theer u sw unserer am weitesten verbreiteten Bäume bestimmen lassen, u habe auch Papier aus mehreren der häufigsten u zähesten Gräser, dem Eucalyptenbast u sw herstellen lassen. Der Erfolg ist so glorreich versprechend, dass Tausenden von armen Familien neue Erwerbszweige eröffnet werden, da das Rohmaterial bei Millionen von Tonnen vorhanden ist. Ich machte diese besonderen Anstrengungen der allgemeinen Colonial-Ausstellung wegen.

24 November 1866.

Enclosed, esteemed Professor, you receive the diary of the late traveller McIntyre.

McIntyre’s journal was published in the Melbourne Age, 23 November–1 December 1866; a German narrative of the expedition, with a map, was published by Petermann in Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes' geographischer Anstalt, vol. 13, 1867, pp. 447-54.

It will show you how great a loss we suffered with the death of this man. I hope soon to be able to send you further news from the expedition, that is searching for Leichhardt.

Ladies' Leichhardt Search Expedition. After the leader, Duncan McIntyre, had died of fever at the Gulf of Carpentaria on 4 June 1866, his second-in-command, William Sloman, was put in charge and continued the expedition.

Always your

Ferd. Mueller.

I hope your North Pole venture has had a glorious outcome.

Petermann was a driving force behind efforts to send out a German North Pole expedition. He had instituted a fund to help finance the enterprise.

28 November 1866.

Unfortunately the publication of the whole diary had not yet been completed before the mails closed.

I have had the content of tannic acid, of acetic acid, of tar, etc., of our tree barks of our most widely distributed tress determined in my laboratory, and have also had paper made from several of our most common and toughest grasses, of Eucalyptus bast etc. The success is so gloriously promising, that it opens up new lines of employment for thousands of poor families, as the raw material is available by millions of tons. I made these particular efforts on account of the general colonial exhibition.

Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne, 1866-7. See in particular M's essay, B67.13.02.