Peter Forsskål wrote a letter to Linnaeus from Betelfaki [Forsskål to Linnaeus, 18 April 1763{L3243}]. An English ship is now sailing for Gedda so Forsskål has no time to write an open letter to Denmark about the genus of the balsam tree and other things.
The party arrived in Mocca on 24 April and were inspected by customs officers. The officers got very suspicious when they found marine species and snakes in alcohol and supposed that the visitors kept these things for magical purposes. After the governor had been better informed, the misunderstanding was cleared up. “Ignorance is the root of incredible folly”.
In Yemen, Forsskål received Linnaeus’s letter [this letter has not come down to us] addressed to Alexandria but not the one with Nils Wallerius’s oppositions [Forsskål refers to Prænotionum theologicarum pars quarta] which was a pity.
Forsskål has now been in Yemen, or Arabia Felix, since 28 December 1762. He knows at least 500 of its plants and cannot expect to find many more. He has roamed the coastal plain as well as the mountains of the interior.
He sends his best wishes to his father [Johannes Forsskål], and brother [Jonas Gustaf Forsskål ] or sister [Johanna Katarina Albom], if they are still alive, and all his friends in Uppsala.