Word: ledyard
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...Ledyard traveled to France, where his celebrity allowed him to befriend Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette, among others. He considered himself out of place among the rich and famous, since he was chronically short on money and always borrowing from his friends. Ledyard tried to set up a fur-trading mission again, this time with the help of the brash American naval hero, John Paul Jones. The plan met resistance from the major European powers, each of which was trying to corner the fur market for itself. His dreams dashed, Ledyard felt footloose...
...Ledyard decided to walk through both Europe and Asia, and, as if that were not enough, traverse the still-undiscovered western half of North America. Jefferson suggested that Ledyard have a 12-inch ruler tattooed on his arm so he could measure longitude without an instrument. (Ledyard rebuffed the suggestion...
...November 1786, with only 50 pounds, a wool cloak, two dogs, a hatchet, and a peace pipe, Ledyard walked through northern Sweden and Finland to reach St. Petersburg, Russia. As he walked, he got in the habit of talking to himself in French: “I believe that wolves, rocks, woods & snow understand it, for I have addressed them in it & they have all been very complaisant to me,” he wrote to Jefferson...
After a short stay in St. Petersburg, Ledyard set off across Siberia in a kibitka, a coach drawn by three horses. But he never received permission to travel through the country from Catherine the Great, and the empress signed an order for his arrest. She feared that Ledyard was really trying to spy on the Russian fur trade, and perhaps pass the information along to the British. Ledyard was rudely escorted out of Russia and his goal of circumambulating the world ended in disappointment...
...Africa, and he, of course, volunteered. Unfortunately, so soon after his Siberian excursion, Ledyard’s health was not as vigorous as his spirit. “To those who knew him…the African adventure looked something like a death wish,” Zug writes. Ledyard only made it as far as Cairo. Suffering stomach pains, he took medication to induce vomiting. But he ingested too strong a dose, causing a blood vessel to burst. He died...