Talk:John McDouall Stuart

Origin of quote?

Referring to 22 April 1860, the article (as at 4 Jan 2007) gives the following quote:

There is a high mount about two miles to the NNE which I hoped would be in the centre but on it tomorrow I will raise a cone of stones and plant the Flag there and will name it Mount Sturt after my excellent and esteemed commander of the expedition in 1844 and 45, Captain Sturt, as a mark of gratitude for the great kindness I received from him during that journey.

However, the Project Gutenberg (Link) digital version of Stuart's journals (and Tim Flannery's book: The Explorers, pg 257 in paperback edition) gives this as the equivalent entry for that day:

There is a high mount about two miles and a half to the north-north-east. I wish it had been in the centre; but on it to-morrow I will raise a cone of stones, and plant the flag there, and name it Central Mount Stuart.

I have always believed, like the article says, that Stuart named the peak after Sturt and others later renamed it Central Mount Stuart in his honour. Anyone know where the first quote is from? —perhaps his hand written diary? Seems immodest that he would name it after himself in his journal. —PeterWH 09:05, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

OK, problem probably solved. This from Northern Territory Department of Planning and Infrastructure Place Names Register:

Originally called CENTRAL MOUNT STURT by John McD. Stuart on 22 April 1860. The name was changed almost immediately to CENTRAL MOUNT STUART in Stuart's honour and official records have used this name since then. Mona Stuart Webster in "John McDouall Stuart" writes:

Although no conclusive evidence has been found, it seems a reasonable inference that James Chambers was responsible for the alteration. The change robbed Stuart of the opportunity he obviously desired of paying a sincere and generous tribute to his former leader. Also, since Chambers made no public statement on the subject, he left the way open for people to coclude, on reading the diary as published, that Stuart, in naming a place after himself had been guilty of doing what was considered to be extreme bad form on the part of a explorer. Stuart, we know, must have agreed to the change before he left Adelaide in November 1860, because he used the name Central Mount Stuart in the diary of his next journey (1860-61).

Appears that the quote is from Stuart's hand written dairy. Name had been changed before publication of the journal. —PeterWH 13:51, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:John McDouall Stuart/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

This is a good summary of Stuart, his expeditions, and the critical relevance of them. It also discusses the global significance of his work; something not commonly done, and therefore adding to the value of the entry. 203.62.149.98 12:43, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Last edited at 12:43, 25 July 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 20:17, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 2 external links on John McDouall Stuart. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070628234302/http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/stuart/john_mcdouall/journals/ to http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/stuart/john_mcdouall/journals/
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100618182405/http://www.australianexplorers.com.au/john-mcdouall-stuart to http://www.australianexplorers.com.au/john-mcdouall-stuart/

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 10:37, 25 April 2017 (UTC)