agony was over, and, what was noticed as a peculiarity by his countrymen, he found a strange satisfaction in attending the place of execution. As he was a man of great equanimity, and had never manifested anything like cruelty, this trait in his character seems not to have lessened him in the good opinion of his acquaintance, and to have been set down to the account of eccentricity.

Major Langborn was certainly an eccentric man, but his oddity was not offensive, because it was not obtrusive, and was free from every thing like affectation. It was rather in his way of thinking, and in his general course of action, than in his manners or conversation; and one might often have been in his company without remarking any thing peculiar about him, except that he was somewhat negligent in his dress. He was frugal in his habits, not from the love of money, but because he had no taste for showy or expensive pleasures; and he was very capable both of feeling and inspiring friendship. As a further reason why the incident mentioned by Mr. Sparks, ought not to excite an unfavourable opinion of him, it did not produce that effect on Ledyard himself, whose admiration of his character continued unchanged, and who, in narrating the story, says, "I see in him the soldier, the countryman, and the generous friend." It was not among the least remarkable circumstances in Major Langborn's life, that on returning to his native state, after an absence of more than twenty years, he married the daughter of the lady whom he had addressed in his youth, and these, we are inclined to think, were the only attachments he ever formed.

Thus disappointed of a companion, Ledyard set off for Stockholm, which he reached towards the end of January. In passing from the Swedish capital to St. Petersburg, he gave a proof of that constancy of purpose which no danger could appal nor difficulty subdue. The usual route is across the Gulf of Bothnia, which is passed in vessels in the summer, and by sledges in the winter. But when the cold is less intense than usual, the gulf is "impassable, either by water or on the ice, for if the passage does not freeze entirely over, the water contains so much floating ice, that no vessel can sail through it." In this case, the only practicable route is around the Gulf, over a dreary, thinly peopled country-a distance of twelve hundred miles to gain only fifty. Such was, unfortunately, the condition of the ice at this time.

"Of all his disappointments, [says his biographer,] none had afflicted him more severely than this. The only alternative was, either to stay in

Stockholm till the spring should open, or to go around the Gulf into Lapland, and seek his way from the Arctic circle to St. Petersburg, through the whole extent of Finland; and in either case, he foresaw that he should arrive so late in Russia, that another season would be wasted in Siberia, before he could cross to the American continent. The single circumstance, therefore, of the passage to Abo being obstructed, was likely to keep him back a full year from the attainment of his grand object. But he did not deliberate long. He could not endure inactivity, and new difficulties nerved him with new strength to encounter and subdue them. He set out for Tornea in the heart of winter, afoot and alone, without money or friends, on a road almost unfrequented at that frightful season, and with the gloomy certainty resting on his mind, that he must travel northward six hundred miles, before he could turn his steps towards a milder climate, and then six or seven hundred more in descending to St. Petersburg, on the other side of the Gulf." p. 184.

His precise route to St. Petersburg is not known, as this part of his journal has not been preserved, but it seem to have been somewhat shorter than the one commonly frequented by travellers. After a journey of seven weeks he arrived at the Russian capital before the 19th of March, having thus "travelled about two hundred miles a week." In a letter to Mr. Jefferson of that date, he thus speaks of his adventures:

"I cannot tell you by what means I came to Petersburg, and hardly know by what means I shall quit it, in the further prosecution of my tour round the world by land. If I have any merit in the affair, it is perseverance, for most severely have I been buffeted; and yet still am even more obstinate than before; and fate, as obstinate, continues her assaults. How the matter will terminate I know not. The most probable conjecture is, that I shall succeed, and be buffeted around the world, as I have hitherto been from England through Denmark, through Sweden, Swedish Lapland, Swedish Finland, and the most unfrequented parts of Russian Finland, to this aurora borealis of a city. I cannot give you a history of myself since I saw you, or since I wrote you last; however abridged, it would be too long. Upon the whole, mankind have used me well; and though I have as yet reached only the first stage of my journey, I feel myself much indebted for that urbanity, which I always thought more general, than many think it to be; and were it not for the mischievous laws and bad examples of some governments I have passed through, I am persuaded I should be able to give a still better account of our fellow-creatures. But I am hastening to countries, where goodness, if natural to the human heart, will appear independent of example, and furnish an illustration of the character of man, not unworthy of him, who wrote the Declaration of Independence.' p. 188.

After he arrived at St. Petersburg, he endeavoured to obtain a passport, first through the English minister, who excused him

self from interfering, and then through the French minister, Count Segur, who was at that time attending the Empress in her celebrated tour to the southern part of her dominions; but amidst the gaieties and festivities of that splendid pageant, his application was overlooked, or, perhaps, the jealousy of his expedition, which he afterwards experienced, had already began to manifest itself. At length, however, by the aid of a Russian officer, with whom he became acquainted, he obtained a passport; and a Scotch physician, Dr. Brown, in the employment of the Empress, being about to set out for a province in Siberia, more than three thousand miles from St. Petersburg, Ledyard was so far fortunate as to be received in his party, and, of course, to travel, in part at least, at the expense of the government.

They took their departure on the 1st of June-reached Moscow in six days-crossed over the Ural mountains into Asiapassed through Tobolsk, the ancient capital of Siberia-and, finally, reached Barnaoul, the capital of the Province of Kolyvan. Ledyard remained there a week, and taking “an affectionate farewell of the worthy Dr. Brown," he resumed his journey to Kamtschatka, a distance of more than four thousand miles. In that part of his journal, written at Barnaoul, he thus expresses his opinion on the varieties of the human race, a subject on which he seems particularly fond of speculating :

"Notwithstanding the modern introduction of linen into Russia, the garments of the peasantry still retain, not only the form, but the manner of ornamenting them, which was practised when they wore skins. This resembles the Tartar mode of ornamenting, and is but a modification of the wampum ornament, which is still discernible westward from Russia to Denmark, among the Finlanders, Laplanders and Swedes. The nice gradation by which I pass from civilization to inci vilization appears in every thing; in manners, dress, language, and, particularly, in that remarkable and important circumstance, colour, which I am now fully convinced, originates from natural causes, and is the effect of external and local circumstances. I think the same of feature. I see here the large mouth, the thick lip, the broad flat nose, as well as in Africa I see also in the same village, as great a difference of complexion; from the fair hair, fair skin, and white eyes, to the olive, black jetty hair and eyes; and these, all of the same language, same dress, and, I suppose, same tribe." p. 199.

Again, in a letter to Mr. Jefferson, dated July, 1787—

"I shall never be able without seeing you in person, and, perhaps, not then, to inform you how universally and circumstantially the Tartars resemble the Aborigines of America. They are the same people; the most ancient and most numerous of any other; and had not a small

sea divided them, they would all have been still known by the same name. The cloak of civilization sits as ill upon them, as upon our American Tartars. They have been a long time Tartars, and it will be a long time before they will be any other kind of people." p. 201.

In various parts of his journal, he expresses the same opinion of the identity of race between the North-American Indians and the Tartars; and while we may be less disposed to put faith in speculations, made to support a preconceived theory, we cannot but feel respect for the facts adduced by so close an observer, and one who had had so wide a field for comparison. Thus, in his notes of the 25th August, he remarks—

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Among the Buretti, or Kalmuks, I observe the American mocasin, the common mocasin, like the Finland mocasin. The houses of the Buretti have octagonal sides, covered with turf, with a fire-place in the centre, and an aperture for smoke; the true American wigwam, and like the first Tartar house I saw in this country, which was near Kazan." p. 217.

Ledyard having crossed on his route from Moscow to Irkutsk, no less than twenty-five rivers which flowed into the Frozen Ocean, averaging half a mile in breadth where he crossed them-having also ascertained that there were twelve other rivers of equal magnitude, between Irkutsk and Kamtschatka, and estimating them all to be twice as wide at their mouths as at their crossing places, he infers, that a column of fresh water, thirty-seven miles in width, and flowing with a velocity of at least three or four miles an hour, "must have a sensible effect in creating and perpetuating the ice in those latitudes-on which his biographer remarks, that whatever may be thought of this theory, a larger quantity flows here into the Frozen Ocean, than in any other part of the world of the same extent. adds, "that snow cannot be formed without moisture-that there can be little evaporation or moisture where frost continues six or eight months in the year”—and asks, "if snow continues to accumulate, whence proceed the vapours necessary for its formation ?"

He

But Mr. Sparks here assumes the fact, that there can be no evaporation from ice or snow, which is not merely questionable but has been disproved ever since the very accurate and conclusive experiments of Dr. Watson.

Ledyard left Irkutsk on the 25th of August, when the forest trees had already begun "to drop their foliage, and put on the garb of autumn. Having travelled one hundred and fifty miles in a kibitka, a rude carriage of the country, he embarked with a Swedish officer on the river Lena, and floated down its current

to Yakutsk in twenty-two days-a distance of fourteen hundred miles. It was then the 18th of September, and "the snow was six inches deep, and the boys were whipping their tops on the ice." He waited on the commandant, delivered his letter from the Governor-General, and made known his wish to proceed immediately to Okotsk, a distance of between six and seven hundred miles. He soon had the inexpressible mortification to learn from the commandant, that the season was too far advanced for him to proceed on his journey. He bitterly bewails his disappointment in his journal, and thus speaks of his interview with the commandant, in a letter to Colonel Smith::

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"The commandant assured me that he had orders from the GovernorGeneral to render me all possible kindness and service; but sir,' continued he, the first service I am bound to render you is, to beseech you not to attempt to reach Okotsk this winter:' He spoke to me in French. I almost rudely insisted on being permitted to depart immediately, and expressed surprise that a Yakuti Indian and a Tartar horse, should be thought incapable of following a man, born and educated in the latitude of forty. He declared upon his honor that the journey was impracticable. The contest lasted two or three days, in which interval, being still fixed in my opinion, I was preparing for the journey. The commandant at length waited on me, and brought with him a trader, a very good, respectable looking man of about fifty, as a witness to the truth and propriety of his advice to me. This trader, for ten or twelve years, had passed and repassed often from Yakutsk to Okotsk. I was obliged, however severely I might lament the misfortune, to yield to two such advocates for my happiness. The trader held out to me all the horrors of the winter, and the severity of the journey at the best season; and the commandant, the goodness of his house, and the society here, all of which would be at my service. The difficulty of the journey I was aware of; but when I assented to its impracticability, it was a compliment; for I do not believe it is so, nor hardly any thing else." p. 229.

Here, however, he was compelled to remain, with no other consolation than, that during the eight months which he expected to be detained, he should be able to make his observations much more extensive, respecting the country and its inhabitants, than if he had passed directly through it." He, accordingly, was diligent in his inquiries about the country and its inhabitants, the result of which he inserted in his journal. His remarks on the manners and character of the Tartars are interesting, but do not admit of abridgment. At Yakutsk, as well as indeed throughout the whole of his journey, he experienced the most friendly and kind treatment from the natives. Hospitality is the characteristic virtue of these dreary regions, not merely beeause the sight of a stranger is a rarity, and does not often tax VOL. II.-No. 4. 51