Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1855-07-11
JOHN LEDYiRD, THE TRAVELLER.

| The opening article in the June mum
! be of PutnaM on " American Travellers. -
! is pleasantly written. though Il hardly
! deserves the praise which has been Law
ished on 1T by the press. The account it
gives of John Ledyard, whom it calls . By
distinction, the American traveller" omits
circumstances in his history far more in
teresting than any which are narrated =
We can hardly account for the omission
of facts of so much interest as those we
are about to recount, especially when we
consider that the sketch in Putnam. ap-
pears in an American periodical, relates
TO American travellers, aud is addressed
to American readers
/ Thomas Jefferson. one of the most sa-
gaclous OF our statesmen. and 4 philoso-
pher as well as statesman. was the dis
coverer of Columbia river. in the same
sense IN which the scientific world consid-
ers Levcrrier the discoverer of the planet
Neptune II is true that the planet was
first seen by DR.. Gale, through d teles-
cope In a German observatory. but the
young mathematician Of Paris had previ-
ously demonstrated Its eXiStance, and in
dicated the part of the heavens toward
which the telescope should be directed to
find it. The discovery of plane. by
purely mathematical process is one of the
most remarkable achievements in the his
tory of science. BY process less won
derful. but still indicative of great sagac-
itS, Mr. Jefferson inferred the existance
of a large river emptying into the Pacific
ocean, before the eyes of any traveller had
rested on the Columbia 1t struck him
that the snow clad SUBMITS of the Rocky
Mountains, which feed the sources of so
mighty a river as the Missouri, must like
wise shed a great quantity of water from
their western slope, and that this would
probably be gathered into one channel
and form large river. The idea seemed
so important that he was impatient to
have its correctness immediately test
ed Mr. Jefferson was then residing in
Paris. as American Minister, and on the
arrival of Ledyard, on his way to the Nile,
Jefferson persuaded him to change his
destination, and try fresher field of dis
coveries on the Western Continent The
proposal of Jefferson touched a chord In
the ardent and adventurous breast of
Ledyard that could not fail to respond =
He furnished the traveller a passport to
St Petersburg, and the necessary facili-
ties for obtaining the permission Of the
Empress Catherine 20 cross the northern
part of her dominions through Siberia to
the Pacific He was then 10 cross from
kamschatba or Behring's Straits, to the
northwest cOas: till be reached the mouth
Of a great river which Jefferson thought
must empty into the Pacific in about the
same latitude with the mouth of the Mis-
souri, lie was then TO ascend the newly
discovered river to its sources. cross the
Rocky Mountains, and descend the Mis-
souri, to the French settlements on the
upper Mississippi. Ledyard was capti-
waited by the project of discovery thus
marked out by Jefferson. Immediately
adopted it, proceed to st. Petersburg, OBJ
taiued the permission which he sought of
the Empress, and set forth for the East
But he was overtaken and arrested in ST.
IBERIA, the permission he had received from
the Empress was revoked. and he was
conducted out of the country as a spy
Returning to Paris, he resumed the plan
of exploring the sources of the Nile.
which he had been prevailed on By Jeffer-
to abandon. but he did not live to carry
out bis design. His early death deprived
MS country OF an ardent, adventurous
aud enterprising traveller, whose explora
tons had his life been spared, would have
resulted in valuable additions to the stock
Of geographical knowledge
The disappointment of Mr.. Jefferson
did not shake his conviction of the exis-
tence of large river west of the Rocky
Mountains debouching into the Pscifc- =
After he became President, he sent
message to Congress recommending the
exploration, winch he had planned to be
conducted By Lewis and Clark aud which
resulted in the discovery of the principal
tributaries of the Columbia. its mouth
having already become known.
We have thought proper to recount
these facts for, though omitted by the
writer in Putnam, they are more remark
able than any other event in the life of
Ledyard. and more valuable than any
thing related in the article to which we
have alluded Bufalo Commercial id
UcTtlSer.
A SURPRISED PARTr-A letter from