To Augustus Gregory   4 June 1857

Botanic Garden, Melbourne,

4. June 1857.

Sir

I am proud to recieve your communication of the 30. May, in which you expressed his Excellency's the Governor General's approval of such services, as I may have rendered in your expedition, and in which you also manifest in flattering terms your own sentiments with regard to the performance of that share of labour entrusted to my special care.

In expressing my thanks for these acknowledgements of what I consider mere fulfilment of duty, it remains to me a source of pride, that my humble services have met with his Excellencys and your own satisfaction, and I beg to add, that the kindful sentiments, which you publicly repeat on this occasion will be most cheering to me in prosecuting the remaining botanical labours connected with your journey.

I shall at all times consider it the greatest distinction, that I shared in the work and the perils of an expedition, which in its extent, in its wise arrangements, in the rapidity of its movements and in its multitude of detail discoveries will ever stand unparalleled in the history of Australian Geography, and which alone through your uncomparable experience, your unabating exertions and your unwearied attention to all its branches, even under the ample means offered for the performance of the exploration by her Majesty's Government, could be brought to such a successful and fortunate issue.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

your most obedient and humblest servant

Ferd. Mueller

Botanist to the North Australian Expedition

 

A. C. Gregory Esq. &c &c &c

Commander of the North Australian Expedition.1

MS annotation by Gregory: ''Received 7th June 1857.'

Please cite as “FVM-57-06-04b,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells accessed on 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/57-06-04b