This man, thought Ledyard to himself, is just suited to be the
companion of my travels. The sympathy was irresistible; besides, he
might be in want of money; this was an appeal to his generosity, which
was equally irresistible to one who, like Ledyard, had ten guineas in
his pocket. "I will fly to him and lay my little all at his feet: he is
my countryman, a gentleman, and a traveller, and Copenhagen is not much
out of my way to Petersburgh," and, accordingly, in the month of
January, 1787, after a long and tedious journey, in the middle of
winter, through Sweden and Finland, we find him in Copenhagen, having
discovered Langhorn shut up in his room, without being able to stir
abroad for want of money and decent clothing. After remaining a
fortnight, he made a proposal to the Major to accompany him to St.
Petersburgh. "No: I esteem you, but no man on earth shall travel with me
the way I do," was the abrupt refusal to the man who had gone out of the
way several hundred miles to relieve his wants, and given him his last
shilling.
The visit being ended, and the amicable partnership dissolved, it became
necessary for our traveller to think of raising the supplies for a
journey round the Gulf of Bothnia, which was now rendered impassable,
the distance being not less than twelve hundred miles, chiefly over
trackless snows, in regions thinly peopled, the nights long, and the
cold intense; and, after all, gaining only, in the direct route, about
fifty miles.
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