Note 1 — Group I. THREE RIVAL CIVILIZATIONS. (continued 3)

John Ledyard was a native of Groton, Conn.; (born 1751, brother of Colonel William, who fell in the defence of Groton, 1781). John went first to Dartmouth College to be fitted as an Indian missionary. In those primitive days the students were called together by the blowing of a conch-shell. Though quick and apt to learn, Ledyard hated study. He preferred climbing the mountains about the college. In four months he ran away. He, however, returned, but finding the rigid discipline no less irksome than before, made his escape in a canoe, in which he floated down the Connecticut River, from Hanover to Hartford, one hundred and forty miles. Ledyard was proud, sensitive, impulsive, and restive under correction or restraint. Finding his purpose to enter the ministry thwarted, in a fit of resentment he shipped for the Mediterranean as a common sailor before the mast. This voyage was Ledyard's preparation for service under Cook. He was in turn theological student, sailor, soldier, explorer, and in his make-up all these characters were combined to produce a thorough-going explorer.