Jones was to carry
the furs to China, Ledyard with assistants, surgeon, and twenty
soldiers to remain at the fur post and explore.
But Paul Jones was counting on the support of the American government;
and when he found that the government considered Ledyard's promises
visionary, he threw the venture over in a pique.
Was Ledyard beaten? Jefferson and he talked over the project day after
day. Ledyard was willing to tramp it across the two Siberias on foot,
and to chance over the Pacific Ocean in a Russian fur-trading vessel,
if Jefferson could obtain permission from the Russian Empress.
Meanwhile, true soldier of fortune, without money, or influence, he
lived on terms of intimacy with the fashion of Paris.
"I have but five French crowns," he wrote a friend. "The Fitzhughes
(fellow-roomers) haven't money for tobacco. Such a set of moneyless
rascals never {256} appeared since the days of Falstaff." Again--"Sir
James Hall, on his way from Paris to Cherbourg, stopped his coach at
our door. I was in bed, but having flung on my robe de chambre, met
him at the door.
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