[1] John Ledyard was a native of Groton, Conn.; (born 1751, brother of Colonel William, who fell in the defence of Groton, 1781). John went first to Dartmouth College to be fitted as an Indian missionary. In those primitive days the students were called together by the blowing of a conch-shell. Though quick and apt to learn, Ledyard hated study. He preferred climbing the mountains about the college. In four months he ran away. He, however, returned, but finding the rigid discipline no less irksome than before, made his escape in a canoe, in which he floated down the Connecticut River, from Hanover to Hartford, one hundred and forty miles. Ledyard was proud, sensitive, impulsive, and restive under correction or restraint. Finding his purpose to enter the ministry thwarted, in a fit of resentment he shipped for the Mediterranean as a common sailor before the mast. This voyage was Ledyard's preparation for service under Cook. He was in turn theological student, sailor, soldier, explorer, and in his make-up all these characters were combined to produce a thorough-going explorer.
A YANKEE SHIP DISCOVERS THE COLUMBIA RIVER.
With the close of the Revolutionary War, the commercial spirit of our countrymen began to re-assert itself in deeds which should stamp them for all time as worthy sons of worthy sires. Far back, even when the colonies were but a few feeble settlements strung along the Atlantic seaboard, few people had shown greater enterprise in seeking avenues for commerce than they.
MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER.
This was especially the case with the New-England colonies. War had ruined their commerce, but with the coming of peace the shrewd New-England merchants were on the lookout for new outlets, since nowhere could ships be so cheaply built, while the population largely got their living either on or from the sea. Besides this, they had a brand-new flag of their own, of which they were justly proud, and which they wished to see afloat on the most distant seas.
The discoveries made on the north-west coast by England, though kept secret till after the close of the war, were by no means unknown to our merchants and sailors, in whom the laudable desire to profit by every avenue the ocean might throw open to honest enterprise and skill, was inspired and increased by a condition of national freedom.
It was at this time that certain merchants of Boston formed (1787) a partnership for beginning a trade between the north-west coast and China. They fitted out the ship "Columbia," of two hundred tons, and sloop "Washington," of ninety tons burden, with trading-goods, which the masters were to barter for furs with the Indians, sell the furs at Canton, and with the proceeds buy teas for the home-market. Large profits were expected. As the United States was a new power at sea, and her flag little known, the masters were provided with passports, to certify they were honest traders sailing under an honest flag.
The owners, however, looked somewhat farther than a mere trading voyage would suggest. They had in mind the establishment, under the national authority, of permanent factories, somewhat similar to those of the Hudson's Bay Company. Looking to this end, their masters, John Kendrick and Robert Gray, were instructed to buy lands of the natives, to build storehouses or forts, or make such other improvements on these lands as would insure their permanent tenure to the owners. In so far as occupation by any white people was concerned, the territory lying between Cape Mendocino and the Straits of Fuca was known to be vacant, though, out of England, Spain was thought to have the best claim to it. Kendrick and Gray were therefore directed to begin operations on this unexplored strip of coast, not only as traders, but as explorers of an undiscovered country.