The St. Petersburg Connection. Alexis S. Troubetzkoy

of his brief service under Captain Richard Deshon, he visited a number of ports in the Caribbean and plied the shores of the Barbary Coast. Three years later, John joined the Royal Navy and was seconded to Captain Cook. With this admired explorer, he visited the Canary and Cape Verde Islands, the Cape of Good Hope, Tasmania, New Zealand, Tahiti, California, and Oregon. Ledyard was on board the HMS Resolution when that ship’s crew exchanged musical offerings with the Mowachahts — he was one of the drummers. (It was he, incidentally, who noted the human delicacy offered at Chief Maquinna’s banquet.)

      The Resolution sailed on to the Orient, Ledyard continuing all the time to keep a journal (it’s the only account by an eyewitness of Cook’s death in Hawaii). In 1782, he jumped ship in New York, and took up residence in the eastern extremity of Long Island. But resting feet developed an itch. Memories were ingrained of the Pacific Northwest, particularly of his exchanges with indigenous peoples and meetings with Russians. Ledyard left Long Island to return to Europe where he set about organizing a fur-trading expedition to the Pacific Northwest.

      Ledyard’s valiant efforts to obtain financial backing came to naught. In desperation, he approached John Paul Jones, who at the time was residing in Paris, then the Marquis de Lafayette, and finally Ambassador Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson writes that Ledyard “was disappointed in [not raising capital], and being out of business and of a roaming, restless character. I suggested to him the enterprise of exploring the western part of our continent by passing through St. Petersburg to Kamchatka 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.”

      Ledyard eagerly accepted the proposal, and wasted little time in laying out plans. It was straightforward: he would travel to Stockholm and then walk across the frozen Baltic to St. Petersburg, where he would secure the permission of the empress to carry out his further travel arrangements. He would then continue by foot through Russia, across the Urals and traverse Siberia all the way to Kamchatka. Per Jefferson’s suggestion, he would then seek passage to Alaska on a Russian vessel and, once on North American shores, he would continue his solo trek down the coast to Oregon. He then planned to walk east, cross the Mississippi and terminate the journey at home on Long Island. He would thus become the first American to cross the North American continent on foot.

      Jefferson forewarned Ledyard — “the roaming restless character” — that Empress Catherine’s permission for the project was absolutely essential, and he suggested that the impatient man bide his time in Paris until such was received. Furthermore, the ambassador offered to set the process into motion by meeting with his Russian counterpart with whom he was on excellent terms. “Ledyard would not relinquish [his determination to press forward] … persuading himself that by proceeding to St. Petersburg he could satisfy the Empress of its practicability and obtain her permission.”

      And so John set off. He made his way by boat to Stockholm, and on arrival was devastated by the magnitude of problems related to his hike across a frozen Baltic. Undaunted, Ledyard trekked around Stockholm, crossed the frozen Gulf of Bothnia into Finland, and after an arduous winter passage reached St. Petersburg in March 1787.

      The empress at the time was away from the capital on an extended visit to the Crimea — her sanction was not to be had. Our hero was unprepared to dally, and he attached himself to a certain Dr. Brown, one of many Scottish physicians working in Russia at the time, who was journeying to Siberia. Brown’s journey terminated at Barnaul in central Siberia, and there Ledyard left him to continue his solo hike to Tomsk and Irkutsk — a distance of twelve hundred miles.

      In Irkutsk, the long arm of Her Imperial Majesty’s police reached out and plucked up luckless Ledyard. Suspicion had been aroused that this unknown, unregistered foreigner was a spy. He was arrested, transported back to Russia, escorted to the Polish border and banished forever from the country. Ledyard’s grand plan of being the first American to cross the North American continent was shattered — at least for the moment.