To Euphemia Henderson   19 September 1863

Melbourne bot. Garden

19/9/63.

My dear Miss Euphemia

I ought to have replied to your kind letter of 9. inst.¹ ere this, but my spirit flagged for a good while past to such an extent that I found it difficult to arouse myself to any extra exertion after the most needful departmental work was done. I have moreover been pressed by Mr Bentham to contribute my share to the 2 vol of the general work² in such a time, that printing of it could be commenced in the beginning of next year, and hence have had to make arrangements that all the material can be shipped pr "Norfolk" where in I shall just succeed & not more.

It was to me very pleasing to learn that you are surrounded by many fond friends & that you are regaining your precious health, without which life is cheerless. Let me hope that you will simultaneously regain your cheerfulness & not allow any sad feelings to disturb your tranquillity. You are right in anticipating that I feel much the absence of Sir Henry Barkly, for I had never a nobler friend and so powerful a supporter in my scientific engagements.³ I had one audience with Sir Charles Darling and found him full of urbanity and certainly without any haughtiness, so that his Excellency must have been wrongly judged by people, and I have no doubt he will early remove any such impression.

Almost immediately after despatching to you my last letter the English & foreign letters arrived, bringing beyond official or scientific communications hardly any that could interest you. I may however mention, though I do not wish it to be further known, that Earl Russell has pointed out that he cannot under the existing regulations grant me the acceptance of distinctions from foreign courts.⁴ I am in no way concerned about this, as these marks of approval of a man's work can little add to his real happiness and if ever so much other rewards were offered beyond what I received I should (could I have seen in the future), not adopt my plan of life a second time; for nothing could have been more forlorn and joyless than my last twenty years.⁵

Mr Maxwell has sent me his collections from the Bight, but as the expedition hardly penetrated any further than even he was before I have obtained hardly any novelty. But I may be compensated by what Dr Martin the Surveyor & Astronomer of Kenneth Browns Expedition will bring from N. W. Australia. Mr Dallachy is started for the high mountains in N. E. Australia and may, if not encountering the natives, reveal much of interest. He is out with an armed party.

Poor Dr Wills writes also again;⁶ he is sad as ever, as you can imagine, about the loss of his poor son.

Trusting that you will continue for me generously your friendship and that I shall never prove unworthy of it, I remain, dear Miss Henderson,

yours very regardfully

Ferd. Mueller.