Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/71

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they were in no condition to make any such engagement. Their recommendatory powers for obtaining contributions, were so openly neglected by the several states, that they declined an engagement which they were conscious they could not fulfil with punctuality ; and so it fell through.

yard, of Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, and of fearless courage and enterprize. He had accompanied Captain Cook in his voyage to the Pacific, had distinguished himself on several occasions by an unrivalled intrepidity, and published an account of that voyage, with details unfavorable to Cook s deport ment towards the savages, and lessening our regrets at his fate. Ledyard had come to Paris, in the hope of forming a company to engage in the fur trade of the Western coast of America. He was disappointed in this, and, being out of business, and of a roam ing, restless character, I suggested to him the enterprize of explor ing the Western part of our continent, by passing through St. Petersburgh, to Kamschatka, and procuring a passage thence in some of the Russian vessels to Nootka sound, whence he might make his way across the continent, to the United States ; and I un dertook to have the permission of the Empress of Russia solicited. He eargerly embraced the proposition, and M. de Semoulin, the Russian Ambassador, and more particularly Baron Grimm, the spe cial correspondent of the Empress, solicited her permission for him to pass through her dominions, to the Western coast of Ame- rica. And here I must correct a material error, which I have committed in another place, to the prejudice of the Empress. In writing some notes of the life of Captain Lewis, prefixed to his 'Expedition to the Pacific', I stated that the Empress gave the permission asked, and afterwards retracted it. This idea, after a lapse of twenty-six years, had so insinuated itself into my mind, that I committed it to paper, without the least suspicion of error. Yet I find, on recurring to my letters of that date, that the Em- press refused permission at once, considering the enterprize as entirely chimerical. But Ledyard would not relinquish it, per suading himself, that, by proceeding to St. Petersburg, he could satisfy the Empress of its practicability and obtain her permission. He went accordingly, but she was absent on a visit to some distant part of her dominions,! and he pursued his course to within two
 * In 1786, while at Paris, I became acquainted with John Led-

[* In the original MS., the paragraph ending with 'fell through,' terminates page 81 ; between this page and the next, there is stitched in, a leaf of old writing, constituting a memorandum, whereof note G. in the Appendix, is a copy.] t The Crimea.