Life of John Ledyard, the American Traveller (1847) (English Edition)

FEW men have done so much in a short life as John Ledyard. When he was a mere boy, he built a canoe with his own hands, and descended Connecticut River, alone and unassisted. He enlisted as a soldier, at Gibraltar, and afterwards, in the humble character of corporal of the marines, he sailed round the world with the celebrated Captain Cook. After his return to England, he formed the bold design of traversing the northern parts of Europe and Asia, crossing Bhering's Straits, and examining the whole of North America, from east to west. Sir Joseph Banks, famous for his generosity to men of enterprise, furnished him with money for the undertaking. He expended nearly all of it in purchasing sea stores, and these, most unluckily were all seized by a custom-house officer, on account of some articles which the English law forbade to be exported. Poor Ledyard was now left in utter poverty; but he was a resolute man, and he would not be discouraged. With only ten guineas in his purse, he attempted to walk over the greater part of three continents! He walked through Denmark and Sweden, and attempted to cross the great Gulf of Bothnia, -on his way to Siberia ; but when he reached the middle of that inland sea, he found the water was not frozen, and he was obliged to foot it back to Stockholm. He then travelled round the head of the gulf, and descended to St. Petersburgh. Here he was soon discovered to be a man of talents and activity, and though he was without money and absolutely destitute of stockings and shoes, he was treated with great attention. The Portuguese ambassador invited him to dine, and was so much pleased with him, that he used his influence to obtain him a free passage in the government waggons, then going to Irkutsk, in Siberia, at the command of the Empress Katharine. He went from this place to Yakutz, and there awaited the opening of Spring, full of the animating hope of soon completing his wearisome journey. But misfortunes seemed to follow him wherever he went. The empress could not believe that any man in his senses was travelling through the ice and snows of uncivilized Siberia, merely for the sake of seeing the country, the people, &c. She imagined that he was an English Spy, sent there merely for the purpose of prying into the state of her empire and her government. She therefore employed two Russian soldiers to seize him, and convey him out of her dominions. Taken, he knew not why—obliged to go off, without his" clothes, his money, or his papers—he was seated in one of the strange looking sledges used in those northern deserts, and carried through Tartary and White Russia to the frontiers of Poland. Covered with dirty rags, worn out with hardships, sick almost unto death, without friends and without money, he begged his way to Conningsburgh, in Prussia.
In this hour of deep distress, he found a person willing to take his draft for five guineas on the Royal Society of England. With this assistance he arrived in the land of our forefathers. He immediately applied to his ever ready friend, Sir Joseph Banks, for employment. Sir Joseph, knowing thafnothingjsuited him better than perilous adventures, told him that a company had just been formed, for the pur pose of penetrating into the interior of Africa, and discovering the source of the river Niger, Burning sands, savage negroes, venomous serpents, all the frightful animals of the torrid zone, could not alarm the intrepid soul of Ledyard. He immediately expressed his desire to go. When the map was spread before him, and his dangerous journey pointed out, he promptly exclaimed, "I will go to-morrow morning." The gentleman smiled at his eagerness, and gladly entrusted him with an expedition in which suffering and peril were certain, and success extremely doubtful. He left London on the 30th of June, 1788, and arrived in Grand Cairo on the 19th of August.

This book originally published in 1847 has been reformatted for the Kindle.