Thus accommodated, he travelled Eastward through Siberia, six thousand miles, to Yakutz, where he was kindly received by Mr. Billings, whom he remembered on board Captain Cook’s ship, in the situation of the Astronomer’s Servant, but to whom the Empress had now entrusted her schemes of Northern discovery.
From Yakutz he proceeded to Oczakow, on the coast of the Kamschatka sea, from whence he meant to have passed over to that peninsula, and to have embarked on the Eastern side in one of the Russian vessels that trade to the Western shores of America; but finding that the navigation was completely obstructed by the ice, he returned again to Yakutz, in order to wait for the conclusion of the Winter.
Such was his situation, when, in consequence of suspicions not hitherto explained, or resentments for which no reason is assigned, he was seized, in the Empress’s name, by two Russian soldiers, who placed him in a sledge, and conveying him, in the depth of Winter, through the Deserts of the Northern Tartary, left him at last on the Frontiers of the Polish Dominions. As they parted they told him, that if he returned to Russia, he would certainly be hanged, but that if he chose to go back to England, they wished him a pleasant journey.
In the midst of poverty, covered with rags, infested with the usual accompaniments of such cloathing, worn with continued hardship, exhausted by disease, without friends, without credit, unknown, and full of misery, he found his way to Koningsberg.—There, in the hour of his uttermost distress, he resolved once more to have recourse to his old Benefactor, and he luckily found a person who was willing to take his draft for five guineas on the President of the Royal Society.
With this assistance he arrived in England, and immediately waited on Sir Joseph Banks, who told him, knowing his temper, that he believed he could recommend him to an adventure almost as perilous as the one from which he had returned; and then communicated to him the wishes of the Association for Discovering the Inland Countries of Africa.
Ledyard replied, that he had always determined to traverse the Continent of Africa as soon as he had explored the Interior of North America; and as Sir Joseph had offered him a Letter of Introduction, he came directly to the Writer of these Memoirs. Before I had learnt from the note the name and business of my Visitor, 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. I spread the map of Africa before him, and tracing a line from Cairo to Sennar, and from thence Westward in the latitude and supposed direction of the Niger, I told him that was the route, by which I was anxious that Africa might, if possible, be explored. He said, he should think himself singularly fortunate to be entrusted with the Adventure. I asked him when he would set out? “To-morrow morning,” was his answer. I told him I was afraid that we should not be able, in so short a time, to prepare his instructions, and to procure for him the letters that were requisite; but that if the Committee should approve of his proposal, all expedition should be used.
Such is the history, and such were the qualifications of one of the persons whom the Committee engaged in its service.
The other, Mr. Lucas, had been sent, when a boy, to Cadiz, in Spain, for education as a merchant, and having the misfortune on his return to be captured by a Sallee Rover, was brought as a slave to the Imperial Court of Morocco.
Three years of captivity preceded his restoration to freedom, and his consequent departure for Gibraltar; where, at the request of General Cornwallis, he accepted the offices of Vice-Consul and Chargé d’Affaires in the Empire of Morocco; and had the satisfaction to return, as the Delegate of his Sovereign, to the very kingdom in which, for so long a period, he had lived as a slave. At the end of sixteen years he once more revisited England, and was soon appointed Oriental Interpreter to the British Court, in which situation he was when he became known to the Committee, and expressed his willingness, with His Majesty’s permission, to undertake, in the Service of the Association, whatever Journey his knowlege of the Manners, Customs, and Language of the Arabs might enable him to perform. His Majesty, with that liberal attention to the Progress of Knowledge which at all times has distinguished his reign, signified his pleasure, that Mr. Lucas should proceed on the business of the Society; and that his salary as Oriental Interpreter should be continued to him during his absence.
Having thus obtained the assistance of two persons so eminently qualified to facilitate the attainment of its object, the Committee proceeded to prescribe to them their respective routs.