PART III 



JOHN LEDYARD. 



CHAPTER I. 



YOUTH AND EARLY EDUCATION OF LEDYARD. 



THIS singular man, the most eccentric, the most 

 unlucky, and, in some respects, the most remarkable 

 traveller of modern times, was born at the village of 

 Groton, in Connecticut, in 1751. His family were of 

 English descent; his grandfather, a merchant in 

 comfortable circumstances, having emigrated from 

 Bristol to the New World many years before the 

 date of Ledyard 's birth. The father of the traveller 

 was a sea-captain, engaged in the West India trade, 

 who died at the age of thirty-five, leaving a widow 

 and four children. One of the latter was Colonel 

 William Ledyard, the commander of the American 

 troops in the unfortunate action of Fort Griswold, 

 who was cruelly slain after the capitulation. 



The youth of John Ledyard was spent at Groton. 

 After his father's death, his mother married Doctor 



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