This was undoubtedly the most severe blow he had yet received; but
Ledyard never desponded--no sooner was one of his castles demolished,
than he set about building another. "I shall make the tour of the
globe," he says, "from London eastward, on foot." To aid him in this
object, a subscription was raised by Sir Joseph Banks, Sir James Hall,
and some others. By this means he arrived at Hamburgh; whence he writes
to colonel Smith:--"Here I am with ten guineas exactly, and in perfect
health. One of my dogs is no more: I lost him in my passage up the river
Elbe, in a snow storm: I was out in it forty hours in an open boat."
At the tavern he went to, he learnt that a Major Langhorn, an American
officer, "a very good kind of a man," as his host described him, "and an
odd kind of a man, one who had travelled much, and fond of travelling in
his own way," had left his baggage behind, which was sent after him to
Copenhagen, but that, by some accident, it had never reached him. He had
left Hamburgh, the host told him, with one spare shirt, and very few
other articles of clothing, and added, that he must necessarily be in
distress.
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