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ging Dr. Scherzer, gedagteekentl Trieste, 24 December 1859 

 en luidende als volgt. 



» I have great pleasure in informing You that the Imperial 

 Austrian Expedition of Circumnavigation of which I enjoyed 

 the honour to be a member, has safely arrived home in August 

 last, after having visited during the whole cruise 21 dif- 

 ferent places, viz: Gibraltar, Madeira, Rio Janeiro, Cape 

 of Good Hope, St. Paul and Amsterdam, Ceylon, Madras, 

 ISicobar-islands , Singapore, Batavia, Manila, Hongkong, 

 Canton, Macao, Shanghae, Pouynipet (Caroline islands), 

 Stewart islands , Sydney , Auckland (New Zealand) , Society- 

 islands and Chile. 



» The serious political state of affairs in Europe , which 

 we learned only at our arrival in Valparaiso, decided the 

 Commander in Chief of the imperial Expedition , Commodore 

 B. De Wuellerstorf, to give up all further projects ofexplo- 

 ration and to return direct to Europe. 



» This resolution,although caused bythe nobleand anxious 

 desire to be present and ready when the threatened country 

 should want to call him and those entrusted to his lea- 

 dership to another field of activity, — yet could not fail 

 to produce, especially amongst the naturalists on board, 

 some disappointments, for it destroyed all our hopes 

 with respect to the continuation of our most interesting cruise. 



» In this sad disposition I applied to Commodore Wuel- 

 lerstorf, that 1 might be permitted to return home with 

 one of the Royal Mail Steamers by the way of the Isthmus 

 of Panama, under the condition to wait at Gibraltar for 

 the arrival of the frigate Novara , who sailed on the ll'h 

 of May direct for the straights round Cape Horn. 



» This request was granted to me with that kindness and 

 obhgingness which the members of the scientific commis- 

 sion were witnessing during the whole cruise from the part 

 of the Commander in Chief of the Expedition , and affor- 

 ded me the most favourable opportunity to see a great 

 number of interesting places along the West-Coast of South 



