A journey through Aboriginal Australia
Melbourne
September 1.06
My dear Howitt,
I shall be delighted to see you and if you let me have a list of the works that you require I will have them brought down into the ??? room where you can work at your leisure without fear of molestation by the "great unwashen". The letter to the "Athenaeum" and the "Academy" were Excellent and will come as a surprise and revelation also to the enemy who has been for so long free from criticism in regard to his ethnologic vagaries that he
has probably come to regard himself as an authority placed upon a lofty pedestal from which he can scatter wind with impunity.
When your last shot reaches him I fancy that he will topple over with a nasty horid 'thud' & may the ground on which he falls be particularly hard.
Kind regards to Miss Howitt who I feel sure quite reciprocates my friendly feelings to the common enemy.
You may be interested to hear that 'Nature' in the reviews of "The ^Dead Heart of Australia" takes Gregory? most seriously as an original authority on Australian Ethnology and looks forward with interest to his promised future work on this subject! The reviewer was Miss Howitt's friend - Mr Thomas.
Yours very sincerely
W. Baldwin Spencer.
Rights: State Library of Victoria
