224 THROUGH THE FIELDS WITH LINNAEUS 



whom Linnaeus took into his house and made tutor to 

 his son, as Celsius and Rudbeck had done for himself, 

 became a martyr to science after Linngeus's death. 

 Hasselquist went to Egypt and the Holy Land in 1749, 

 and died on his way home, his work achieved. Niebuhr 

 published an account of the expedition. Linnaeus also 

 published his travels, 1 and wrote a memoir of Hasselquist, 

 which has been translated into English. 



Hasselquist, son of a poor curate, underwent poverty 

 at Upsala, supporting himself by tuition. Linnaeus 

 assisted him to a royal scholarship. 



'In one of his botanical lectures, in 1747, Linnaeus 

 spoke of the countries of whose natural history little or 

 no account had as yet been communicated to the learned 

 world. Among these, he observed, was Palestine, one 

 of the most important and interesting in this respect, 

 but of whose productions we had less knowledge than of 

 those of India. This remark fired the zeal of young 

 Hasselquist. In vain did his preceptor, secretly de- 

 lighted with his enthusiasm, represent to him the diffi- 

 culties of the undertaking the distance, the dangers, 

 the expense, and above all the weak state of his own 

 health. All this did but increase his ardour, and he 

 thought a change of climate good for his lungs. He 

 declared he would rather walk all the way to Palestine 

 than have his purpose crossed. He obtained some 

 private subscribers and some help from the university, 

 and began to learn Oriental tongues.' 

 1 June 24, 1757. 



