Phytologic Museum, Melbourne,1 3rd January, 1896.
Your kind letter, C.E.M., renewed my emotions about poor Dr. Leichhardt. Since 1849 I have endeavored to clear up his fate. I commenced about then a correspondence with Sir Thomas Mitchell,2 suggesting a search from the Gulf of Carpentaria southwards, and when in 1855 and 1856 I was under the Hon. Augustus Gregory in the far interior of North Western Australia,3 we may possibly not have been far off from Dr. Leichhardt and his last companions — four only (after the death of the four at the Rocks). Indeed, much later, the aboriginals at Johns's Springs related to Mr. M'Phee that a tribe, ten days' walk southwards, saw four riders one day steering for some rocks when coming from the north-east, one aboriginal finding them dead the next day from thirst. There was some water amongst the rocks which they did not find. An axe is said to have been for many years kept by that tribe as emanating from the lost party.4 Hume's story of Classen would account for other members of the party to some extent, but as I pointed out at the time, he (Hume) could not likely have seen the old man retained amongst the natives, but heard of him, and related what he had heard as seen.5 Your very remarkable information tends also in this direction and strengthens the appeal made by me at the International Congress of Geographers held in London in July last.6 Is there not a single bright spirit on whom fortune has smiled who would devote a trifle of his riches to what would become an historic event — the unveiling of Leichhardt's fate? In 1897 it will be fifty years when the missing explorer left trustfully with his followers your metropolis to cross the continent from east to west, intending to skirt the great Central Desert on his way to Swan River. if he had perished in the floods of the Georgiana or other rivers of North-eastern Australia we would have had traditions from aboriginals of such a catastrophe, and all the corpses of the party, the horses, and oxen, and the extensive equipments — could they have remained unseen by the bushmen since in this vicinity? I admire your own noble views in this cause, and I do not think we ought to let the period of search for the place of Leichhardt's succumbing pass into another epoch of fifty years. We speak daily of rivers, ranges, and other geographic features disclosed by Leichhardt's glorious first expedition to Port Essington, and named by him, but never seem to think of his claim during recent years. In that eventful enterprise he displayed excellent bushmanship, finding his way when even an aboriginal companion had lost it — swimming himself and rescuing horses and exhibiting many other acts of valor and sagacity, only sustained by slender means of provisions, having travelled at the outskirts of N.S.W. mostly as a lonely wanderer. Moreover, the great tract of gold-bearing country from Coolgardie to Stuart's Creek is likely to pass through the very regions in which Leichhardt's party perished, so far as it kept together. Therefore gains of wealth might easily arise to anyone who may send out a new search party into the last unexplored part of Australia, the north-western desert. The expenditure of a light expedition provided with camels, now easily obtainable, would not be really large, and its objects would probably be obtained in one single cool season. Why not start it now, as the summer has passed?7 — yours, &c, Ferd. Von Mueller.
There is no other instance in the surviving correspondence of this being used as an address line, although there are letters from M that enclosed specimens or seeds, that used one of M's standard herbarium labels with 'Phytologic Museum, Melbourne' as the name of his herbarium.
See M to T. Mitchell, November 1851 (in this edition as 51-11-00); no earlier letter from M to Mitchell has been found.
North Australia Exploring Expedition, 1855-6.
See M to A. Supan, February 1890 (in this edition as 90-02-00).
To whom and when M might have given this possible explanation has not been found, although in M to W. B. Clarke, 19 September 1871, he said that he had explained to William Woolls 'some weeks ago the many reasons, why the story of the man Hume rests on impossibilities'. For details of Hume and his various claims, see D. Lewis (2013), pp. 138-53.
No other evidence of a direct request by M to the Congress has been found, but Lindsay (1896), a paper presented to the Congress, includes this passage when discussing Leichhardt: 'That eminent scientist and explorer, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, has been ever urging upon the geographical societies the necessity of examining this tract of country, in the hope of finding some traces of the lost party' (p. 623).
Summer would not 'have passed' in January, the date given to this letter. The dating may have been a mistake either on M's part or by the typographer, though both seem an unlikely possibility. Alternatively, the letter may have been a spoof. The possible misrepresentation is supported by the following oddities in this letter mentioned in the notes above: the Phytologic museum address line; the inaccurate description of M's being a friend of Leichhardt; the failure to find any other reference to M's having suggested that Hume may not have met Classen but relied on evidence for someone who had met him; no other evidence of a direct appeal to the London International Geographical Congress. The details could have been readily drawn from publicly available instances of M's continued appeals for further Leichhardt searches, not least his letter to the Treasurer of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (M to H. Crummer, 22 January 1896), reported in Sydney morning herald, 31 January 1896, that contains specific references to the impact of Queensland flooding in response to a question in H. Crummer, 27 December 1895.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Leichhardt's Fate: Baron von Mueller's opinion', Evening news (Sydney), 28 March 1896, supplement, p. 1. It is introduced by '"The Advocate" (Orange), of March 18, has the following "letter to the editor":
Sir'— You were kind enough some time ago (just before the last general election) [the NSW general election was in July 1895 (https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/electionresults18562007/)] to allow space for a letter of mine commenting on the report in the 'Evening News'' of the discovery by prospectors of a group of copper-colored natives in the interior of West Australia, and of their bringing a boy of the tribe in to Coolgardie with them {there was a brief report in 'A light-complexioned tribe', Evening news, 8 July 1895, p. 5, but copies of The Advocate have not been seen]. I suggested in that letter that these people might be half-caste descendants of the remnant of Leichhardt's lost party. Having seen no further reports of these people, I communicated some four weeks ago with Leichhardt's old friend Baron Von Mueller [M could not have met Leichhardt and none of M's published lectures or appeals suggest that they corresponded],and have received from him the following reply. He gives me leave to have it published, so will you kindly do so. The Baron is anxious to interest persons having spare money to assist in equipping a small party to visit this part where the copper-colored people are, and search further inland, if necessary, for the remains of the horses, cattle, and firearms, tools, &c, of Leichhardt's party. C.E.M.'.
Please cite as “FVM-96-01-03b,” 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