The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 327, August 16, 1828Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 327, August 16, 1828
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
Now, it was deemed expedient, both by his friends and by himself, that
all further thoughts of his becoming a divine should be abandoned; and
in the course of a few weeks we find him a common sailor, on board a
vessel bound for Gibraltar. While at this place Ledyard was all at once
missing; he had enlisted into the army. The master, being the friend of
his late father, went and remonstrated with him for this strange freak,
and urged him to return. The commanding officer assented to his release,
and he returned to the ship.
The voyage being finished, the only profit yielded by it to Ledyard was
a little experience in the hardships of a sailor's life, as his scanty
funds were soon exhausted and poverty stared him in the face. At the age
of twenty-two he found himself a solitary wanderer, dependent on the
bounty of his friends, without employment or prospects, having tried
various pursuits, and failed of success in all. But poverty and
privation were trifles of little weight with Ledyard; his pride was
aroused, and he determined to do something that should exonerate him
from all dependence on his American friends.
He had often heard his grandfather descant on his English ancestors, and
his wealthy connexions in the old country; it struck him, therefore,
while thus hanging loosely on society, that it might be no unwise thing
to visit these relatives, and claim alliance with them. With this view
he proceeded to New York, and made his terms with the master of a vessel
bound for Plymouth. Here he was set down, without money, without
friends, or even a single acquaintance. How to get to London, where he
made himself sure of a hearty welcome and a home among those connexions,
whose wealth and virtues he had heard so often extolled by his
grandfather, was a matter not easily settled. As good fortune would have
it, he fell in with an Irishman as thoughtless as himself, and whose
plight so exactly resembled his own, that, such is the sympathetic power
of misfortune, they formed a mutual attachment almost as soon as they
came in contact. Both were pedestrians bound to London, and both were
equally destitute of money or friends; and one _honest_ mode only
remained for them to pursue, which was, to address themselves to "the
charitable and humane." This point being settled, it was agreed to take
their turn in begging along the road; and in this manner they reached
London, without having any reason to complain of neglect, or that there
was any lack of generous and disinterested feeling in the human species.
Ledyard's first object, after arriving in the metropolis, was to find
out his rich relations, in which he was so far successful as to discover
the residence of a wealthy merchant of the same name, to whose house he
hastened. The gentleman was from home; but the son listened to his
story, and plainly told him he could put no faith in his
representations, as he had never heard of any relations in America. He
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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