LEDYARD, John, American traveler: b. Groton, Conn., 1751; d. Cairo, Egypt, 17 Jan. 1789. He entered Dartmouth College in 1772, with a. view of fitting himself for missionary duty among the Indians. The restraints of this mode of life proving irksome, he absented himself at one time from college fot several months, during which he visited the Indians of the Six Nations; and, finally abandoning the idea of becoming a missionary, he embarked on the Connecticut River in a canoe of his own fashioning and floated down to Hartford. After a brief experience as a theological stu dent, he shipped at New London as a common sailor in a vessel bound for the Mediterranean, and at Gibraltar enlisted in a British regiment, but was discharged at the request of his cap tain. He accompanied Captain Cook on his third voyage around the world, 1776-80, and of this voyage he kept a private journal, which in accordance with a general order of the government was taken from him on the return of the expedition to England. Subsequently he wrote out from recollection, assisted by a brief sketch issued under the sanction of the Admiralty, an account of the expedition, pub lished in 1783. During the two years suc ceeding his return to England he remained in The British naval service, but steadily refused to take arms against his native country. In
December 1782, he found means to escape. He intended to journey through northern Europe and Asia and after surmounting many obstacles arrived at Irkutsk, where on 24 Feb. 1788 he .was arrested by order of the Empress Cath erine, conducted with all speed to the frontiers of Poland, and there dismissed, with an intima tion that he would be hanged if he re-entered Russia. Ledyard found his way back to Lon don in the spring, and was cordially received by Sir Joseph Banks and others who had be friended him. Undaunted by previous adver sities, he eagerly accepted an offer to under take an expedition into the interior of Africa; and when asked how soon he would be ready to set out, replied: *To-morrow morning.* He departed from England in the latter part of June, intending to cross the African continent in a westerly direction from Sennaar, and had proceeded as far as Cairo, when he died. For capacity of endurance, resolution and physical vigor, was one of the most remarkable of modern travelers. Many extracts from his journals and his private correspondence with Jefferson and others are given in Sparks' mem oir of him.