Joseph Banks’s and Daniel Solander’s second voyage to the South Seas has been postponed until next spring. They shall instead, in a few days time, set out for Scotland, and then on to Iceland, to train artists and other young men they have engaged. Captain James Cook, however, shall sail south as planned. The Government has given Solander’s position, as natural historian to the Captain, to a learned Prussian, Johann Reinhold Forster.
Andreas Berlin recommends to Linnaeus a German named John Miller. He has been encouraged to translate Linnaeus Systema. [Miller published some years later his, An illustration on the sexual system of the Genera plantarum of Linnaeus]. He craves for a catalogue of the species Linnaeus himself has not had the possibility to examine, in this way opening up a new correspondence for Linnaeus, which Berlin estimates will be useful. Miller is a friend of John Fothergill and Knight.
Berlin says he is not in the position to reveal anything about the collections brought home by Banks and Solander. He understands that one person in particular [i.e. Solander] has behaved ungrateful towards Linnaeus. Berlin claims that he has the same vieuw as John Ellis, i.e. that you have to endure what can’t be changed. Therefore he can only send Linnaeus curiosities that can be bought [on an open market]. Anyway, he would like to ask Linnaeus to recommend Solander and Banks as Fellows of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences [Kungliga Svenska Vetenskapsakademien]. They have already been honoured by the French Academy [Académie royale des sciences, Paris] and have been created Honorary Doctors at Oxford.
Uno von Troil and Fredrik Herman von Walden shall accompany the party to Iceland. Von Walden is an ample cartographer and familiar with firearms.
On behalf of James Gordon, an eminent gardener, Berlin hopes that Linnaeus would permit Gordon’s two sons, who intend to go to Sweden next summer, to visit the Orangery and the Botanical Garden.