John Ledyard's Journey through Russia and Siberia, 1787–1788: The Journal and Selected Letters

4. The History and Editing of the Papers

4 THE HISTORY AND EDITING OF THE PAPERS THE CHIEF SOURCE of infonnation about Ledyard's journey through Russia and Siberia is the journal he kept from the time of his departure from St. Petersburg on June 1, 1787 (N.S.), to shortly before his arrival in Konigsberg in mid-April, 1788 (N.S.). Each entry was written at some point during the journey; entries of 1787 are dated New Style, most of those of 1788 are Old Style. Ledyard had neither time nor inclination to fill in or broaden the journal at some later date. The journal is the only known written material of his own that he was able to salvage and carry with him after his arrest in Irkutsk. Another smaller journal that he kept was left behind somewhere in Siberia. Various other papers he mentions unfortunately remained at Yakutsk; perhaps still more notes were lost elsewhere. The original journal has been lost, the beginning of it in the United States, the remainder perhaps in England. All that has come down from the original journal is now found in three transcriptions, two of which are far more important than the third. In London Ledyard left the original manuscript, which covered his journey through Russia, Siberia, and Poland, with Henry 81 82 INTRODUCTION Beaufoy and Sir Joseph Banks, who were sponsoring his trip to Africa. He, of course, was already indebted to Banks for the contribution of a generous sum of money toward financing the Siberian trip. From London Ledyard wrote to his cousin in New York that he would send home a "transcript of the few rude remarks" that he had made while in Siberia. Evidently he never forwarded such a transcript, for after the news of his death in Egypt reached Isaac, the New York doctor sent a letter to Beaufoy requesting that the journal be forwarded to him. A friend of Beaufoy's, the Reverend Richard Price, replied to Isaac as follows : "Mr. Beaufoy ... tells me that he cannot think himself warranted to give up the Journal in his possession without being assured that he will be subject to no future application for it from the heirs of Mr. Ledyard the traveller.-None of the papers which you wish to obtain can be had without the consent of Sir Joseph Banks and the other gentlemen who have contributed to bear the expenses of Mr. Ledyard's travels."l Isaac had also written to Sir Joseph Banks on January 29,1790, informing him that Ledyard had wanted him to publish an account of his travels; since the journal was in the hands of Mr. Beaufoy, he desired to have it to complete his compilation. He furthermore requested Banks's patronage of the work. Later that year Sir Joseph replied that Ledyard, upon his departure for Cairo, had deposited the journal in the hands of Beaufoy, to be returned to him if he came back, and in the case of his death to be retained as testimony of gratitude for the favors he had received.2 In spite of the confusion over whose permission was needed to forward the journal to Ledyard's cousin, eventually Isaac must have acquired a good share of what Henry Beaufoy held of Ledyard's writings. However, it is not known whether only original manuscripts were forwarded to him or whether transcripts 1. Letter dated June 19, 1790, at Hackney near London (NYHS). Price was a prominent economist and political writer. 2. Banks, The Banks Letters, ed. Dawson, p. 525. IDstory and Editing of the Papers 83 were also included. A letter of Isaac's son Daniel throws light on Isaac's motives in collecting Ledyard's writings: It was the intention of Dr Ledyard himself to publish the travels of his cousin, a few years after his death, and he had all the letters, from him and all other papers that could throw any light on the subject, prepared for the press, but after the manuscript was finished he concluded, with the advice of his friends, to abandon this intention, the account of his travels being to[o] incomplete to answer the bublic [sic] expectation. Since that time the family had given up all idea of making any publication of these travels.... [However,] in preference to seeing a very unsatisfactory account of his life before the public, ... they accordingly sent the manuscript to the Rev Mr Sparks-3 In...