CARVER, Jonathan, American traveler: b. Stillwater, N. Y. (the universal ascription to Connecticut is an error), 1732; d. London 1780. He embraced a military career, and in the French War of 1756 commanded a company of provincials, in the expedition across the lakes against Canada. When peace was concluded in 1763, Carver undertook to explore the vast ter ritory which Great Britain had gained. His object was to acquire a knowledge of the manners, customs, languages, soil and natural productions of the nations and region beyond the Mississippi, and to ascertain the breadth of the continent by penetrating to the Pacific over its widest part, between lat. and 46° N. He accordingly set out from Boston in 1766, and having reached Michiliinackinac, the remotest English post, applied to Mr. Rogers, the governor, for an assortment of goods as presents for the Indians dwelling in the parts through which his course was to be directed. Receiving a portion of the supply which he desired, and a promise that the residue should be sent to him at the falls of Saint Anthony, he continued his journey. But not obtaining the goods at the appointed place, in conse quence of their having been disposed of else where by those to whom the governor had en trusted them, he found it necessary to return to La Prairie du Chien. He then, in the begin ning of the year 1767, directed his steps north ward, with a view of finding a communication from the heads of the Mississippi into Lake Superior, in order to meet, at the grand port age on the northwest side of that lake, the traders that usually came about this season from Michilimackinac, from whom he intended to purchase goods, and then to pursue his journey. He reached Lake Superior in good time; but unfortunately the traders whom he met there could not furnish him with any goods, as they had barely enough for their own purposes, and, in consequence, he was obliged to return to the place whence he first departed, which he did in October 1768, after remaining some months on the north and east borders of Lake Superior, and exploring the bays and rivers that empty themselves into that body of water. He soon
after repaired to England with the view of publishing his journal and charts, and of ob taining reimbursement for the expenses which he had incurred. Having undergone a long ex amination before the lords commissioners of trade and plantations, he received permission to publish his papers; but when they were nearly ready for the press an order was issued from the council-board, requiring him to deliver im mediately into the plantation office all his charts and journals. He was, consequently, obliged to repurchase them at a great expense from the bookseller to whom he had disposed of them — a loss for which he received no indemnification, but was forced to be satisfied with that obtained for his other expenses. He had fortunately kept copies of his papers, and he published them 10 years afterward in Boston, while in the situation of a clerk of a lottery. His works are 'Travels Through the Interior Parts of North America' (1778) ; 'Treatise on the Culture of the Tobacco Plant' (1779) ; 'The New Universal Traveler' ; 'Literary History of the American Revolution.' Consult 'The Carver Centenary' (1867 published by the Minnesota Historical Society) ; Bourne E. G.
J (in the American Historical Review, January 1906).