Ludwig Leichhardt: Four Previously Unknown Letters to John Nicholson and the Involvement of Ferdinand von Mueller in Publishing Leichhardt's Letters

Abstract

Two previously unknown letters written by Ludwig Leichhardt to his friend John Nicholson and sent to Ferdinand von Mueller were published in the Adelaide German newspaper Australische Zeitung in 1882. A third letter to Nicholson has been found as a copy in a Leichhardt diary and a fourth letter has been found in a volume of autograph letters in Brisbane. Translations of these letters are provided here and their significance indicated. The translation of another Leichhardt letter that proved to be controversial, and was attributed to Mueller, is shown not to have been translated by him. A transcription and translation of a previous unknown letter to Eduard Hallmann is provided in the Supplementary Material.