Miguel Barnades thanks Linnaeus for his letter dated 22 December 1758 [this letter has not come down to us], received through Daniel Scheidenburg, and admits that he should have written earlier, but as his wife had been very ill he had not been able to do so. Now, she is recovering.
Barnades was very glad that the specimens of plants and birds, sent with the young Hildebrands [Jacob Henrik Hildebrand and Claes Henrik Hildebrand], had arrived in good order and had pleased Linnaeus. He is eager to see Linnaeus’s comments on the plants that may grow from the seeds he sent.
Barnades congratulates Linnaeus on the publication of Systema naturae, 10th edition and wants to obtain a copy, and also copies of some other works, such as Michael Alberti, De erroribus in pharmacopoliis, Pehr Löfling, Iter Hispanicum, eller resa til spanska länderna uti Europa och America], and promises to pay all the costs of getting them.
The rest of the letter is taken up by three descriptions of birds and a short discussion of the difficulties of using vernacular names and learned names fortuitously for these species. Identification is often very uncertain due to this.
Barnades gives an additional list of eighteen rare birds, recently observed, and he offers Linnaeus descriptions of those if Linnaeus wants them.
Barnades reports from their mutual friend José Ortega that Pehr Löfling’s plant specimens, which Linnaeus expected from Ortega, had been handed over to Scheidenburg and that they would be sent after Barnades had seen them and made additions to the brief notations that the original collector, Löfling, had once made to them.