29/6/61
My dear Dr Wilkie.
Not being certain, whether I shall be able to attend at the Exploration Meeting this day, I beg to submit to you yet a [rider] to the report drawn up by the subcommittee.
Will you oblige me by bringing it before the meeting.
Regardfully
yours
Ferd. Mueller
Altho' Dr Mueller reluctantly concurred in the decision of the subcommittee that the recommendation of sending the Victoria to the Australian North coast should be postponed until despatches had been received from Coopers Creek (if then found necessary) — he wished, before the Exploration Committee adopts a final resolution on this question, to point out, that the Victorian Expedition may encounter many unforseen difficulties and dangers, which may be alleviated by a timely naval aid. Dr Mueller wishes the Exploration Committee to bear in mind, that the Victorian Expedition started for the desert at the end of the cool and wet season, that the route to be followed, as indicated in the instructions is intermediate between tracts of waterless country, that probably the Expedition is not supported by medical aid and that, however sanguine we may be in the anticipations of the services of the Dromedaries, the success of applying these animals to Australian travels remains yet to be proved.2
Please cite as “FVM-61-06-29,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/61-06-29