[From Jefferson's Autobiography, in Ford's Writings of Jefferson (N. Y., 1892–99), i, pp. 94–96.]
In 1786 while at Paris I became acquainted with John Ledyard of
Connecticut, a man of genius, of some science, and of fearless courage,
& enterprise. He had accompanied Capt Cook in his voyage to the
Pacific, had distinguished himself on several occasions by an unrivalled
intrepidity, and published an account of that voyage with details unfavorable
to Cook's deportment towards the savages, and lessening our
regrets at his fate. Ledyard had come to Paris in the hope of forming
a company to engage in the fur trade of the Western coast of America.
He was disappointed in this, and being out of business, and of a roaming,
restless character, I suggested to him the enterprise of exploring
the Western part of our continent, by passing thro St. Petersburg to
Kamschatka, and procuring a passage thence in some of the Russian
vessels to Nootka Sound, whence he might make his way across the
continent to America; and I undertook to have the permission of the
Empress of Russia solicited. He eagerly embraced the proposition, and
M. de Sémoulin, the Russian Ambassador, and more particularly Baron
Grimm the special correspondent of the Empress, solicited her permission
for him to pass thro' her dominions to the Western coast of America.
And here I must correct a material error which I have committed
in another place to the prejudice of the Empress. In writing some
Notes of the life of Capt Lewis, prefixed to his expedition to the
Pacific, I stated that the Empress gave the permission asked, & afterwards
retracted it. This idea, after a lapse of 26 years, had so insinuated
itself into my mind, that I committed it to paper without the least
suspicion of error. Yet I find, on recurring to my letters of that date
that the Empress refused permission at once, considering the enterprise
as entirely chimerical. But Ledyard would not relinquish it, persuading
himself that by proceeding to St. Petersburg he could satisfy the Empress
of it's practicability and obtain her permission, He went accordingly,
but she was absent on a visit to some distant part of her dominions, and
he pursued his course to within 200 miles of Kamschatka, where he
was overtaken by an arrest from the Empress, brought back to Poland,
and there dismissed. I must therefore in justice acquit the Empress of
ever having for a moment countenanced, even by the indulgence of an
innocent passage thro' her territories this interesting enterprise.
