Ferdinand von Mueller

1

For another copy of the above letter see A36, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Vic. Branch) papers, Mitchell Library.

copy

Melbourne

16 March 1886.

The Reverend S. Macfarlane

Principal of the Mission Institute of New Guinea

&c&c

Reverend Sir

The Council of the Victorian Branch of the Australian geographic Society begs to avail itself of your presence in our metropolis for conveying to you the expression of our admiration of the missionary work, carried on by you with such unabating devotedness, sound judgement and signal success for a very long series of years. As representatives of a geographic Union we are all the more impressed with the magnitude of your operations, with the great mental gifts brought by you to bear on your onerous task and the wisdom and bravery displayed by you in your perilous work, — as you have carried the gospel to new territories, which though known at their outskirts through centuries, remained closed for civilized settlement, until you now fully 15 years ago as a New Guinea Pioneer of the great London Mission-Society changed your abode from the Polynesian Islands to the Papuan shores; — an event which necessitated and brought with it as a sequence various extensive toilsome and hazardous explorations highly important and quite original also for geographic science, and initiatory for extended commerce and rural occupations. It is a proud position, Reverend Sir, which you have thus won, one of historic renown; — and while you can look to the triumphant achievements of your disinterested exertions, in impar[t]ing the blessings of Christianity to thousands, you not only subdued the savage usages and horrid customs of those converted by you to the recognition of divine truth, but brought wordly safety, genuine mortal happiness and heavenly grace also to the coming generations of those lands, in which you so arduously and unselfishly laboured. We express further to you our special thankfulness for the interest, evinced by you in the Expedition, which was sent out under Capt. Everill's able command by the Australian geographic Society to the great Fly-River system,

2

New Guinea exploring expedition, 1885.

and we tender our words of gratitude for the active aid and valuable counsels, which contributed to the success of that enterprise. And now we offer you also our best wishes for your voyage to the home country, where you are sure to inspire additional ardor for Papuan missionary work; and we add the hope, that you will early return to us in this part of the world; — we trusting, that divine providence will grant you a long and serene evening of life in unimpaired health, so that you may live to witness as one great result of missionary exertions, initiated by yourself, the establishment of christian churches over the whole of New Guinea, and the conversion of the whole Papuan population to religious civilisation with all its worldly and heavenly gains.