[Regarding the letter of our correspondent "Ubiquity," in Saturday's issue,1 relative to the Russian scientific expedition to New Guinea, we learn that a letter was received by Dr. Von Mueller the mail before last from the celebrated geographer, Dr. Petermann, of Gotha, on this subject. It seems that a Russian naturalist is to spend two years at the island, engaged in the task of scientific exploration. The details of the plan will appear in Petermann's Mittheilungen, the well-known European geographic journal.2]
'Ubiquity' referred to an item 'in one of the issues of the daily press of last week' mentioning that M had received a letter from Petermann on this topic, arguing that this was a prelude to Russian expansion into areas near Australia and urging 'our Government ... treat with the natives of New Guinea for certain portions of their territory, for the purposes of settlement' (Argus, 15 April 1871, p. 6). His speculation may have been fuelled by the visit of the Russian warship Haydamack; see M to O. Lindberg, 21 February 1871 (in this edition as 71-02-21a).
See 'Wissenschaftliche Expedition nach Neu-Guinea', Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen, vol. 17, p. 69 (issued January 1871). In September 1871 a Russian naval squadron en route to Kamchatka dropped off the naturalist Nikolai Miklouho-Maclay on the north coast of New Guinea, where he lived until collected by another squadron, fifteen months later.
Letter not found. The text given here is from Argus, 17 April 1871, p. 5. The letter is dated to December 1870 as the latest likely date for it to have been sent to have been 'received the mail before last'.
Please cite as “FVM-70-12-00e,” 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