fallen there into the severest pecuniary embarrassments. Our enthusiast hastened to the Danish capital, in order to sacrifice his ten guineas for the relief of one whom, in fact, he had never seen-to whom he owed no assistance. He travelled far aside from his direct route, and exposed himself to all the evils of a winter journey through Sweden and Finland. The major took his money; but, after they had passed an amicable fortnight together in Copenhagen, answered his wish of further companionship by saying: 'No; I esteem you, but I can travel in the way I do with no man on earth.' The simple generosity of Ledyard submitted; he drew a bill on his friend Colonel Smith for a small sum, and, in the depth of winter, 'set out for Tornea, alone, without friends, on a road almost unfrequented at that season, and with the certainty that he must travel northward 600 miles before he could turn his steps towards a milder climate, and then 600 or 700 more, in descending to St Petersburg, on the other side of the Gulf of Bothnia.' He chose, too, a different direction from the common one, and passed far into the most unfrequented parts of Finland. Before the 20th of March, he reached St Petersburg! that is, within seven weeks of the time of leaving Stockholm, making the average distance per week which he travelled about 200 miles. No part of his Journal, during this dreadful tour, has been preserved; and his sufferings can therefore only be conjectured.

After

At St Petersburg, his letters procured him eminent acquaintance, among whom the learned Professor Pallas and Count de Ségur proved his chief patrons. waiting there nearly three months, he obtained at length his passport for the prosecution of his journey to Siberia. Just at this time a Scotch physician was going to the province of Kolyvan, in the employment of the empress. Ledyard joined him, and thus had a companion for more than 3000 miles of his route. They passed through Moscow, Kazan, Tobolsk; and our adventurer remained a week at Barnaoul, the capital of Kolyvan, and the term of his companion's journey. After spending a week at

Barnaoul, he set out for Irkutsk with the courier who had charge of the mail. Here he remained about ten days, and then proceeded down the river Lena, and arrived at Yakutsk after a voyage of twenty-two days. This place was unfortunately destined to be the terminating point of his wonderful journey. The Russian government, with its habitual meanness, suspected his intentions, and ordered him to be detained or prevented from going further.

It was while spending a dreary and inclement winter at Yakutsk, that Ledyard penned in his journal his exquisite and celebrated eulogy on Women-a simple unstudied effusion, with which the sex have more reason to be pleased than with all the most elaborate and finelytermed compliments that gallantry or flattery ever produced. I have observed,' says he, among all nations, that the women ornament themselves more than the men; that, wherever found, they are the same kind, civil, obliging, humane, tender beings; that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest. They do not hesitate, like man, to perform a hospitable or generous action; not haughty, nor arrogant, nor supercilious, but full of courtesy and fond of society; industrious, economical, ingenuous, more liable in general to err than man, but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship to a woman, whether civilised or savage, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide-spread regions of the wandering Tatar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, woman has ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and to add to this virtue, so worthy of the appellation of benevolence, these actions have been performed in so free and so kind a manner, that, if I was dry, I drank the sweet draught, and, if hungry, ate the coarse morsel, with a double relish.'

Ledyard had not been quite two months at Yakutsk, when Captain Billings arrived there from his expedition to the river Kolyme and Frozen Ocean. The captain was one of our traveller's companions during the whole of Cook's last voyage, and might well be surprised at meeting his old acquaintance in the heart of Siberia,' not having heard from him since their separation at the close of the voyage. After they had passed about five weeks together at Yakutsk, Billings persuaded Ledyard to return to Irkutsk with him, a distance of 1500 miles, which they accomplished in seventeen days, travelling in sledges up the river Lena, on the ice. Ere a month more had elapsed, Ledyard was arrested as a French spy! by an absolute order from the empress;' hurried into a kibitka with two guards, conducted with all speed to Moscow, and thence to the frontiers of Poland, where his ferocious attendants released him, with the suggestion that he might go where he pleased, but if he returned again to the dominions of the empress, he would be hanged! This transportation, as it may be called, was effected in six weeks, over a space of 6000 versts-three versts being equal to two English miles.

After undergoing this ignominious and cruel treatment, Ledyard reached Königsberg absolutely destitute, and in bad health. He was so fortunate as to dispose there of a draft for five guineas on his old benefactor, Sir Joseph Banks, a sum by which he was enabled to pursue his journey to England. Once more, therefore, after an absence of fifteen months, do we find him in the British capital, and, to use his own words, again disappointed, ragged, and penniless, but with a whole heart.' He had scarcely enjoyed, in London, time enough to choose his lodgings, when Sir Joseph Banks proposed to him, on behalf of the African Association, an expedition into the interior of Africa. He replied, that he had always determined to traverse the continent of Africa, as soon as he had explored the interior of North America. Sir Joseph gave him a note of introduction to the secretary of the Association, with whom he sought an immediate

interview. Before I had learned from the note the name and business of my visitor,' says the secretary (Mr Beaufoy) in an official report, I was struck with the manliness of his person, the breadth of his chest, the openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his eye.' Being asked when he would set out- to-morrow morning'was his answer. His biographer dwells upon this phrase, as an instance of extraordinary decision and fortitude of character. The frequency of his disappointments, the freshness of his sufferings, the magnitude of the labours and perils inseparable from the new enterprise, would have caused any other than Ledyard to hesitate at least, if not to shrink from it in utter satiety, lassitude, despair, or horror.

The route traced for him by the Association, was from London to Paris, thence to Marseilles, across the Mediterranean to Egypt, from Alexandria to Grand Cairo, from Cairo to Sennaar, and thence westward, in the latitude and supposed direction of the Niger. He stopped in Paris seven or eight days, performing homage of gratitude to his inestimable friends, Jefferson and Lafayette. In a little more than a month, he was in Alexandria; and, in less than a week more, at Grand Cairo, only the startingpost of his arduous expedition. Here three months were consumed before he had any certainty of being able to proceed in his design. He awaited the departure of the caravan, which he wished to accompany to Sennaar. Alas! it was his fate to close his earthly career just when on the eve of departure for the interior! During his residence at Cairo, his pursuits had made it necessary for him to be much exposed to the heat of the sun, and to other deleterious influences of the climate, at the most unfavourable season of the year. The consequence was an attack of a bilious complaint, which he thought to remove by the common remedy of vitriolic acid. Whether this was administered by himself, or by some other person, is not related, but the quantity taken was so great as to produce violent and burning pains, that threatened to be fatal, unless immediate relief could be procured. This

was attempted by a powerful dose of tartar emetic: but all was in vain. The best medical skill in Cairo was called to his aid without effect, and he closed his life of vicissitude and toil, at the moment when he imagined his severest cares were over, and the prospects before him were more flattering than they had been at any former period. He was decently interred, and all suitable respect was paid to his obsequies by such friends as he had found among the European residents in the capital of Egypt. The precise day of his death is not known, but the event is supposed to have happened towards the end of November 1788. He was then in the thirty-eighth year of his age.

Regret is deep, not only for the extinction of such a spirit, but for the loss of that chance of discovery which attended his undertaking. He had seen more, could endure more, and persevere further, than any other man. His intense zeal, incredible activity, dauntless courage, resolute honour, comprehensive intelligence, promised all that could be achieved by an individual.

ROYAL CEMETERIES OF FRANCE.

THE ancient church of St Denis, which contained in its sepulchral vaults the mortal remains of the long line of princes, who, during a period of 1200 years, had swayed in succession the sceptre of France, was opened in 1793 by a decree of the National Convention, the tombs pillaged of their valuable relics, and the leaden coffins enveloping the bodies carried off, to be moulded into bullets for the punishment of the enemies of France.' It is not our intention to make any remarks upon that dreadful condition of excitement under which the nation must have laboured, before wanton desecrations of this character could have been sanctioned by the legislative assembly,