26th of May, 1862, Lord Ashburton awarded the founder's
Gold Medal to the representative of the late Robert O'Hara Burke,
and a gold watch to King. These were handed to his Grace the Duke
of Newcastle, who attended in his public capacity as Secretary of
State for the Colonies, and undertook to deliver them to the
respective parties, with many justly eulogistic observations. Lord
Ashburton read a paper on the progress of geographical science, and
Sir R. Murchison, in the course of a notice on Australia, suggested
that that portion which had been explored by Mr. Burke should be
hereafter called Burke's Land. But it so happened that my son's
name was neither mentioned nor alluded to in the published
proceedings.

At the first meeting of the Society for the present season, held on
the 10th November, 1862, and at which I was present, Sir Roderick
Murchison introduced the subject of Australian exploration in his
address, in a manner quite unexpected by me. The next day I
received the following official communication, which embodied the
substance of what he had said, and nearly in the same words.

TO DR. WILLS.

15, Whitehall Place, 11th November, 1862.

SIR,

At the first meeting of the Council of this Society, during this
session, I brought under the consideration of my associates, a
statement of the distinguished botanist, Dr. Mueller, of Victoria,
to the effect that the friends of your deceased son were
dissatisfied on finding that Mr. Burke, the leader of the late
expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria, had received a gold medal,
and that Mr. King had received a watch, whilst no testimonial of
the services of Mr. Wills had been presented on the part of the
Royal Geographical Society.

Permit me to assure you that when the award of the gold medal was
made, every member of the Council, as well as myself, who proposed
it, felt that to your son alone was due the determination of all
the geographical points, by his astronomical observations, and that
therefore the honour should be shared between the leader and
himself.

Continuing to entertain the same sentiments, and regretting that
the rule of the society prevented them from granting more than one
gold medal for an expedition, the Council have authorized me to
offer this explanation to you, in order that it may be preserved as
a memorial.

As nothing less than a medal could have been adjudicated to so good
a geographer as your lamented son, so I trust that this