Having been duly authorized by you to secure the pistol of your
late son, I will take an early opportunity to claim it for you and
bring it to your son Thomas. I will also very gladly do what I can
in restoring to you any other property I may hear of as belonging
to your lamented son William. As soon as Professor Neumayer
returns, we can learn with exactness what instruments were your
son's. I will also inquire about the telescope. I believe I forgot
mentioning to you, that it would be a source of the highest
gratification to me to call some new plant by the name of the
family, who claim as their own, one of now imperishable fame. But I
will not be unmindful that, in offering an additional tribute,
humble as it is, to your son's memory, it will be necessary to
select, for the Willsia, a plant as noble in the Australian flora
as the young savant himself who sacrificed his life in accomplishing
a great national and never-to-be-forgotten enterprise.
Trusting, my dear and highly valued friend, that the greatness of
the deed will, to a certain extent, alleviate your grief and sorrow
for an irreparable loss, and that Providence may spare you long in
health and happiness, for your family.
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