4i2  THE  AFRICAN  PIONEERS  [Book  III

It  is  probable  that  commercial  jealousy  on  the  part
of  the  fur-traders  was  the  cause  of  this  arbitrary  act.  Be
that  as  it  may,  Ledyard's  project  of  exploration  was  at
an  end.  In  the  midst  of  poverty,  covered  with  rags,
worn  by  hardship,  exhausted  by  disease,  without  friends,
without  credit,  unknown,  and  full  of  misery,  he  found
his  way  to  Konigsberg.  There  he  drew  another  bill  for
five  guineas  on  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  and  returned  to
London.
The  question  now  will  suggest  itself  to  the  reader,
How,  with  so  little  money,  did  he  manage  to  go  so  far  ?
1  All  that  I  have  learned  from  him,'  writes  Mr.  Beaufoy,
the  Secretary  of  the  Association,  'on  this  subject  was,
that  his  sufferings  were  excessive  ;  and  that  more  than
once  he  owed  his  life  to  the  compassionate  temper  of
women.'  It  was  during  this  journey  he  composed  his
famous  eulogy  on  the  sex.
