To William Branwhite Clarke   28 June 1865

LADIES' LEICHARDT 1 SEARCH COMMITTEE

28/6/65

Reverend and venerable friend,

Your letter just arrived is certainly so admirable, that with consent of the Ladies Committe I have the main portion of it transferred to the "Australasian,"2 trusting that you will not disapprove of the step. It is but just that your noble exertions should be fully known, especially as I have in my speech at St George's Hall3 not done justice to you. This apparent shortcoming arose from the fact, that only a few months before I had in the report on the graves found by Conn & Giles, referred to some extent to your exertions & your opinions.4 The only copy I had of your long printed letter,5 in which you weigh so fully the evidence I sent with our report to Mr Gregory & have had no oppurtunity of restoring it. The report is however printed in the new volume of our Royal Society & thus my appreciation of your exertions permanently recorded.

Mrs Dr Bromby has secured the cooperation of Prof Pell, a friend of her brother. I trust you will unite with the few, who now uphold conjointly your friend’s claims.

Sundry articles in the Melbourne papers will show what progress is made. Pardon me for the briefness & inelegance of this note. I write hurriedly amidst other engagements.

May you enjoy the blessings of health & contentedness, that is the wish of your attached

Ferd Mueller

1
Leichhardt’s name mis-spelled in the printed letterhead.
2
See W. B. Clarke to M, 20 June 1865.
3
B65.02.01, subsequently widely reprinted.
4
B65.14.05, a copy of which was sent to Augustus Gregory 'to obtain his opinion as to the further investigation concerning Leichhardt's fate' (resolution at the meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria, 10 October 1864 after M had read the report, Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria , vol. 6, p. lii).
5
'Leichhardt and the Desert’, Sydney morning herald, 24 August 1858, pp. 4-5.

Please cite as “FVM-65-06-28,” 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 24 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/65-06-28