Adelaide
17th Decr 1886
Baron F. Von Mueller K.C.M.G. &c &c &c &c
Melbourne
Sir,
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your kind letter of 14th inst.1 and I note with pleasure the fact that the collection of botanical specimens was of some value.
Of course you are the better judge as to who should have received any money you felt able to pay for the collection and I would not presume to question the justice of paying Lieut Dittrich a portion of the £20 which I had hoped to receive towards paying the expenses to which I have been put. I called to see Mr Krichauff today but he was out and will not return till Monday — I have no claim on the South Australian Govt for any further amount towards defraying the cost of the botanical collector and it is doubtful if I get any from any source
You refer to Lieut Dittrichs extensive collection of photographs and his diaries. Let me inform you that all the photographs save one or two are complete failures the plates being mere [smudges], and that no one here gains any benefit from his diaries as [he has] not given [any of] them to anyone.2
I would beg of you not to believe all Mr D. may tell you because he does not hesitate to speak untruths when it suits him and further he makes cowardly statements behind my back — for instance he positively and on several occasions denied having written to the German paper or to have mentioned my name in any private letter, whereas a most malicious letter containing many falsehoods and misrepresentations from him was published in July3 — He also denied having asked for the Camels to be handed over to him at Powells creek4 to enable him to return to Hergott.5 Sir Thos Elder told me he wrote him from Corella Lagoon6 asking for the above but as the Camels had been lent to me Sir Thos felt he had no authority or control over them therefore did not reply to Lieut Dittrich's letter.
He also stated (I believe to the Hon the Minister of Education7 that I had had copies made of the photographs and sold them. Of course that was a deliberate falsehood as I have had nothing to do with them, besides as I mentioned before they are all worthless. He has acted as no gentleman would have done and deserves the utmost contempt
Apologising for intruding so far on your valuable time and thanking you for the honor done me in getting me appointed as corresponding member of the Victorian branch of the R.G.S.A.
If Lieut Dittrich had been a man he would have placed before the Adelaide branch of the RGSA a letter setting forth his grievances and complaints, but he preferred the under hand course of telling untruths to those who will listen to him.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your obedt
David Lindsay
Surveyor & Explorer
Please cite as “FVM-86-12-17,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/86-12-17