On setting our traveller down in Poland, the soldiers who had guarded
him, gave him to understand that he might then go where he pleased; but
that, if he again returned to the dominions of the empress, he would
certainly be hanged. It did not appear for some time what the real cause
was of this proceeding; but there is every reason to believe it arose
out of the jealousy of the North-west Russian Fur Company, whose
head-quarters were at Irkutsk, and that their influence at Petersburgh
had procured from the empress the annulment of her previous order,
together with the present inhuman mandate. Ledyard, however, knew
nothing of this; and, having neither relish nor motive for making the
experiment a second time, he took the shortest route to Konigsberg,
where he found himself destitute, without friends or means, his hopes
blasted, and his health enfeebled. In this forlorn condition, he
bethought himself once more of the benevolence of Sir Joseph Banks, and
had the good luck to raise five guineas, by a draft on his old
benefactor, with which he reached London.
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