Western Australia
Crown Lands' Office
Perth, 6th May 1890.
Sir,
1. With reference to your letters and to a communication from Mr MacDonald respecting Mr McPhees reports as to white men having perished inland from Lagrange Bay,1 I have the honor to inform you that I have made enquiries into the matter from the Government Resident at Roebourne and from the Telegraph Station Master at Lagrange Bay.
2. The Government Resident writes to me, and after telling me what steps he has taken says "In considering this report of Mr MacPhees it must be borne in mind that several parties during the last few years either proceeding from Gold diggings to Gold diggings or prospecting, have been lost, or rather supposed to have been lost, in this vicinity, this may have given rise to these reports by the blacks who could not discriminate between one white man and another."
3. I enclose you a copy of the report by the Telegraph Station Master at Lagrange Bay which is interesting, and gives all the information he has been able to collect on the spot.2
4. Anything further I can ascertain will be forwarded to you.
5. I will be obliged if you will communicate this letter to the Geographical Society through Mr MacDonald.
I am Sir
Your obedient Servant
John Forrest
C C Lands3
Baron Sir Ferd. Von Mueller K.C.M.G.
Melbourne
'Mr Macdonald' is presumably Alexander Macdonald, the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch). Alexander McPhee of Western Australia was invited to the Council meeting of the Society held on 14 February 1890 'and gave an account of his search after a white man reported to be living with a native tribe inland from Lagrange Bay. … [He] expressed a wish to go out in search of the remains of the party. The Council offered to set apart … £500 for the purpose of an expedition from Lagrange Bay, or Nickol Bay … to Lake Macdonald, provided the leader would make a careful examination of the country traversed and chart the same' (Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch), vol. 8, part 1 (August 1890), p. 23).
Intended enclosure not found; it was evidently not enclosed, see M to A. Macdonald, 15 May 1890.
Commissioner Crown Lands.
Please cite as “FVM-90-05-06a,” 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