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LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER.


John Ledyard, by birth an American, was, in all respects, from the
habits of his life, a citizen of the world. He was born at a small
village called Groton, in Connecticut, on the banks of the Thames; his
father was a captain in the West Indian trade, but died young, leaving a
widow and four children, of whom John was the eldest; his mother is
described as "a lady of many excellences of mind and character,
beautiful in person, well informed, resolute, generous, amiable, kind,
and, above all, eminent for piety and the religious virtues." Her little
property, it seems, was lost through fraud or neglect, and the widowed
mother, with her four infant children, thrown destitute upon the world.
In a few years, however, she was again married to Dr. Moor, and John was
removed to the house of his grandfather, at Hartford, where, at a very
early age, it is said, he showed many peculiarities in his manners and
habits, indicating an eccentric, an unsettled, and romantic turn of
mind. Having gone through the grammar-school, he was placed with a
relative of the name of Seymour, to study the profession of the law; but
this dry kind of study was soon found to have no attractions for one of
his volatile turn of mind. Something, however, was to be done to rescue
from sheer idleness a youth of nineteen, with very narrow means, few
friends, and no definite prospects; and, by the kindness of Dr.
Wheelock, the pious founder of Dartmouth College, who had been the
intimate friend of his grandfather, he was enabled to take up his
residence at this new seat of learning, with the ostensible object of