To August Petermann1    24 November 1863

Melbourne im bot. Garten

am 24 Nov.1863

Hochverehrter Herr Professor!

Mit der Morgenpost erlaube ich mir diesmal Ihnen die Secunda eines Wechsels von £10 zuzusenden als meinen eignen weitern Beitrag zum nordafrikanischen Reisefond. Die Prima sandte ich Ihnen im letzten Monat. Seit ich die Ehre hatte Ihnen die letzte Abrechnung vorzulegen, sind keine weitern Beiträge für diese Forschungen bei mir eingelaufen; indessen wird unfraglich im Verlauf dieser interessanten u menschenfreundlichen Forschungen noch mancher Landsmann hier sein thätiges Interesse an den Unternehmungen bekunden. Das Schiff Johannes, welches mir durch Herrn Dr Sonders Vermittlung Ihre schöne Sendung bringt ist endlich vor 3 Tagen angelangt. Ich werde aber vor dem Abgang dieser Post nicht in den Besitz Ihrer Gaben gelangen u kann daher erst später über die Vertheilung berichten.

Mit inniger Hochachtung bleibe ich, verehrter Herr Doctor,der Ihre

Ferd. Mueller.

 

Durfte ich Sie um Ihre photographirte Visitenkarte bitten für meine Sammlung der Bildnisse grosser u befreundeter Zeitgenossen?2

 
 
 

Melbourne Botanic Garden,

24 November 1863.

Esteemed Professor,

I take the liberty of sending you the second bill of exchange of £10 by this morning's mail as my own further contribution to the North African expedition fund.3 I sent the first copy last month.4 No further contributions for these explorations have been received by me, since I had the honour of presenting the last statement of account to you;5 however, in the course of these interesting and philanthropic explorations many a compatriot here will no doubt still want to show his lively interest in the undertaking. The ship Johannes, which brings me your splendid consignment through the agency of Dr Sonder, has finally arrived here three days ago. I shall not be able to take possession of your gifts before the departure of this letter, so I cannot report on their distribution6 until later.

With cordial respect I remain, esteemed Doctor, your

Ferd. Mueller.

 

May I ask you for your photographic carte-de-visite for my collection of portraits of great contemporaries, who are my friends?

For a published version of this letter see Voigt (1996) pp. 49-50.
MS annotation by Petermann: 'Erh. 20. Jan. 1864. | A. 27 April —' [Received 20 January 1864. Answered 27 April.]
The 'Heuglin Fund' instituted by Petermann to finance the German expedition he had organized to search for the missing German explorer Eduard Vogel and to explore unknown parts of Central Africa. M had previously collected contributions from the German community in Australia, as well as contributing personally.
See M to A.Petermann, 25 October 1863 (in this edition as 63-10-25a).
See M to A. Petermann, 23 February 1862 (in this edition as 62-02-23a).
See A. Petermann to M, 16 May 1863.

Please cite as “FVM-63-11-24a,” 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/63-11-24a