"To-morrow," answered Ledyard, with the heedlessness of one who has lost grip on life. The salary advanced paid off the moss-grown debts of his disappointed past, but he never reached the scene of his new venture. He died on the way at Cairo, in November, 1788, for all hope had already died in his heart. The world that has entered into the heritage of his aims has forgotten Ledyard; for the public acclaims only the heroes of success, and he was a hero of defeat. All that Lewis and Clark succeeded in doing for the West, backed by the prestige of government, Ledyard, the penniless soldier of fortune, had foreseen and planned with Jefferson in the attic apartments of Paris.[3] [1] The world owes all knowledge of Ledyard's intimate life to Jared Sparks, who compiled his life of Ledyard from journals and correspondence collected by Dr. Ledyard and Henry Seymour of Hartford. [2] In Sauer's account of the Billings Expedition, some excuse is given for the conduct of Billings on the ground that Ledyard had been insolent to the Russians. [3] Ledyard's _Journal of Cook's Last Voyage_, Hartford, 1783, and Sparks's _Life of Ledyard_, Cambridge, 1829. {263} CHAPTER X 1779-1794 GEORGE VANCOUVER, LAST OF PACIFIC COAST EXPLORERS Activities of Americans, Spanish, and Russians on the West Coast of America arouse England--Vancouver is sent out ostensibly to settle the Quarrel between Fur Traders and Spanish Governors at Nootka--Incidentally, he is to complete the Exploration of America's West Coast and take Possession for England of Unclaimed Territory--The Myth of a Northeast Passage dispelled forever With Gray's entrance of the Columbia, the great drama of discovery on the northwest coast of America was drawing to a close. After the death of Bering on the Commander Islands, and of Cook at Hawaii, while on voyages to prove there was no Northeast Passage, no open waterway between Pacific and Atlantic, it seems impossible that the myth of an open sea from Asia to Europe could still delude men; but it was in hunting for China that Columbus found America; and it was in hunting for a something that had no existence except in the foolish theories of the schoolmen that the whole northwest coast of America was exploited.