Ledyard eagerly agreed to make the trial, provided that the Russian Government would give its consent. This being granted, the explorer set out for Kamschatka; but at Irkutsk, in Siberia, he was stopped and turned back, in consequence of the jealousy of the Russian-American Company, whose headquarters were at Irkutsk, and who feared their interests would be endangered if this daring stranger were permitted to pass into their territory. From this time Ledyard's personal history ceases to be associated with that of the Great West. But he was the first to perceive, perhaps dimly, what was shortly to become, with a broader growth, the ruling idea of American statesmen. FOOTNOTE [1] JOHN LEDYARD was a native of Groton, Conn.; (born 1751, brother of Colonel William, who fell in the defence of Groton, 1781). John went first to Dartmouth College to be fitted as an Indian missionary. In those primitive days the students were called together by the blowing of a conch-shell. Though quick and apt to learn, Ledyard hated study. He preferred climbing the mountains about the college. In four months he ran away. He, however, returned, but finding the rigid discipline no less irksome than before, made his escape in a canoe, in which he floated down the Connecticut River, from Hanover to Hartford, one hundred and forty miles. Ledyard was proud, sensitive, impulsive, and restive under correction or restraint. Finding his purpose to enter the ministry thwarted, in a fit of resentment he shipped for the Mediterranean as a common sailor before the mast. This voyage was Ledyard's preparation for service under Cook. He was in turn theological student, sailor, soldier, explorer, and in his make-up all these characters were combined to produce a thorough-going explorer. A YANKEE SHIP DISCOVERS THE COLUMBIA RIVER. With the close of the Revolutionary War, the commercial spirit of our countrymen began to re-assert itself in deeds which should stamp them for all time as worthy sons of worthy sires. Far back, even when the colonies were but a few feeble settlements strung along the Atlantic seaboard, few people had shown greater enterprise in seeking avenues for commerce than they. [Illustration: MOUTH OF THE COLUMBIA RIVER.] This was especially the case with the New-England colonies. War had ruined their commerce, but with the coming of peace the shrewd New-England merchants were on the lookout for new outlets, since nowhere could ships be so cheaply built, while the population largely got their living either on or from the sea. Besides this, they had a brand-new flag of their own, of which they were justly proud, and which they wished to see afloat on the most distant seas.