vessels, pinnaces, wherries, &c., each filled with masqueraders in the dresses of different nations. It was in the month of February, at which time all the ground was covered with snow, and all the rivers frozen. All these machines were placed on sledges, and were drawn by horses through all the principal streets of Moscow. The ship required above forty horses to draw it. In order to its passing under the gates, the topmasts were struck, and, when passed, set up again; besides which, the gateway was dug as low as was necessary for admitting it to pass."

As soon as these festivals were concluded, Peter, who had been invited into Persia with an army by the shah, who required his aid against the rebellious Afghans, prepared to march southward; and Bell, who was thought to understand something of Persian manners, having spent some time in the country, was engaged by the czar's chief physician to accompany the expedition. Accordingly, the troops having been embarked on the Moskwa, they descended by water to the Caspian Sea, and made for the shores of Daghestan, where they landed and encamped. They then proceeded along the sea-shore to Derbend, where the fleet, containing the provisions, stores, &c. for the army, was wrecked upon the beach. This gave Peter a plausible excuse for returning home without affording the shah the desired aid. Indeed the whole expedition appears to have been a mere piece of treachery, got up for the purpose of obtaining possession of Derbend; for "the emperor determined," says Bell, "to leave things in the state they were in, and to return again to Astrakhan, by the same way we came, leaving a garrison at Derbend sufficient to secure the advantage he had gained."

We now lose sight of our traveller for fifteen years, the whole of which, however, he spent in Russia. In

1737 the war with Turkey, which had begun in 1734, began to grow disagreeable to the Russian court, the Ottomites, in spite of their barbarism, being more obstinate in the field than their polished enemies of the north had anticipated. Under these circumstances it was thought advisable to negotiate a peace; but as the Turks made no proposals, and as in time of war no subject of Russia, or Germany, the ally of Russia, was admitted into the dominions of the sultan, Bell, who appears to have been greatly respected both for his character and abilities, was prevailed upon, "at the earnest desires of Count Osterman, the Chancellor of Russia, and of Mr. Rondeau, his Britannic Majesty's minister at the Court of Russia," to undertake the journey. He departed from Petersburg on the 6th of December, 1737, and arrived at Constantinople on the 29th of the next month. With respect to his commission he merely observes, that he punctually conformed to the terms of his instructions. His negotiations did not detain him long. He left Constantinople on the 8th of April, and on the 17th of May arrived at Petersburg. Here he concludes his account of himself and his travels. In the decline of his life he returned to Scotland, where he resided at Antermony, his native place; and it was there that, surrounded apparently by affluence, and enjoying the most ample leisure, he wrote his excellent and interesting account of his travels, the first edition of which appeared in 1762. His death took place in 1780.

JOHN LEDYARD.

Born 1751.-Died 1780.

THIS traveller, who for enterprise and courage has seldom been surpassed, was born in the year 1751, at Groton, a small village on the river Thames, in Connecticut, in the United States. He had at a very early age the misfortune to be deprived of his father; and although his mother, a woman of remarkable piety and benevolence, discharged with exemplary affection her duties towards him and her other children, notwithstanding a second marriage, this circumstance cut him off from all those advantages which the moral education received in a wellregulated family under the paternal roof confers. Owing in a great measure to the political condition of the country, but principally, perhaps, to the restlessness of his own character, his youthful studies were irregular and ill-directed. He frequently changed his inclinations in the choice of a profession. At one time the law, at another the career of a missionary among the Indians, captivated his fancy. When both these schemes of life had been, one after the other, abandoned, his imagination appears to have dwelt with complacency for a moment on the peaceful studies and noiseless, though important, avocations of a country clergyman.

The completion of the slender education which he received was effected at Dartmouth College, an institu

tion established by the Rev. Dr. Wheelock, in the back woods, with the benevolent design of scattering the seeds of religion and civilization among the Indian nations. Here Ledyard, whose mind was as impatient of the salutary restraints of discipline as that of any savage upon earth, exhibited unequivocal tokens of those locomotive propensities which afterwards goaded him into rather than directed him in his romantic but almost aimless wanderings over the greater part of the habitable world. For ordinary studies he had evidently no aptitude. He read, indeed, but it was such reading as beguiled away the time, and nourished the fantastic vagaries of his imagination, without much enlarging his mind, or knitting his character into firmness or consistency. In many respects he scarcely yielded to the Knight of La Mancha. What does the reader think he. carried with him to college, whither he was proceeding for the purpose of fitting himself for spreading the light of Christianity, and with it the blessings of social life, among the Indians? Histories of former missions, from the failure or success of which he might derive light for his own guidance; or books which, by unfolding the genuine character of savages, might instruct him in the art of captivating their affections and moulding their passions into manageable forms? Nothing of the kind. But, instead of these, he drove across the woods to college in a sulky, containing a choice collection of plays, with calico curtains, and various other materials for scenic representations !

When he had been some time at Dartmouth, toiling at studies which were wholly incompatible with his tastes, he suddenly disappeared, and no one could conjecture whither he had betaken himself. He was absent upwards of a quarter of a year; and it afterwards appeared that during all this time he

was wandering among the savages, reconnoitring, as his American biographer conjectures, the strong places of ignorance and prejudice, against which, as a missionary, his future attacks were to be directed. It is more probable, however, that the excursion was undertaken merely to escape from the discipline of the college, than which nothing, it is clear, could be more irksome to him. After roaming as far as the borders of Canada, picking up as he went along a knowledge of the character and language of the savages, which was of essential service to him in his subsequent wanderings, he returned to Dartmouth, and resumed his studies.

Nevertheless a secret predilection, which operated like destiny, already began to shape his course towards its proper goal. An appetite for violent excitement gradually discovered itself in his character. Action of some kind or other became necessary. To satisfy this longing, he climbed mountains in winter and slept in the snow; but this sobering couch, which we are told brought St. Anthony to reason, failed to produce so favourable an effect upon Ledyard. He descended the mountain, apparently pleased to have discovered that slight hardships, at least, would not kill him, and fully resolved, as soon as opportunity should present itself, to put the force of his constitution to still further trial. Accident not furnishing him with an occasion for exhibiting his prowess in this way, he took the matter into his own hands.

Robinson Crusoe was evidently Ledyard's beau idéal of a hero. To the young mind which makes companions of its own dreams, solitude is sweet, as it favours their growth, and throws a gorgeous mantle over their deformities. Our young traveller seems to have early conceived the design of achieving a reputation, and, in the mean while, until he should