le him to put it into
execution. He proceeded to Hamburgh; from thence to Copenhagen; and,
as the gulf of Bothnia was not frozen over, actually walked round its
shores by the way of Tornea, till he arrived at Petersburgh, in the
beginning of March 1787. Here he remained till May, when he obtained
permission to go with a convoy of military stores, intended for
Captain Billings, formerly his ship-mate in Cook's voyage, and now
waiting for it to commence his own examination of the American
coast, &c. With this convoy, Lediard, in the month of August, reached
Irkutsk, in Siberia, at which place, after having gone to Yakutsk,
where he met with Billings, he purposed to remain a part of the
winter, till an opportunity occurred of going to Ochotsk, from which
his passage to America seemed very practicable. So far, then, he
had to congratulate himself on his success. But his enterprise was
speedily interrupted, and all his hopes frustrated, by an order from
the empress; in consequence of which he was arrested, and, under the
guard of an officer and two soldiers, hurried off in a sledge for
Moscow, without being suffered to carry with him either his clothes,
his money, or his papers. The reason of this extraordinary conduct has
not been explained in the communication made by Sir Joseph Banks
to the Biographia Britannica, from which we have collected these
particulars. We are told, however, that the disappointed adventurer
was successively conveyed from Moscow to Moialoff, in White Russia,
and Tolochin, in Poland; at which last place, he was informed, that
the empress had directed he should never enter her dominions again
without her express permission. During the whole of his route, since
he had been made a prisoner, he suffered extreme hardship from ill
health, fatigue, and mortification. At last he reached Konigsberg;
and, to use his own words, in a letter to his patron, after "a
miserable journey, in a miserable country, in a miserable season, in
miserable health, and with a miserable purse," arrived in England.
The ardour of his mind, however, was still entire; and he appeared
as ready as ever to engage in any service, however perilous, which
promised to gratify his own curiosity, and was recommended by men
whose judgment he respected. Accordingly, almost immediately on his
return, it was proposed to him to undertake the first speculative
excursion which the society alluded to projected. On this occasion it
was, as is noticed