Ledyard, Connecticut
New London County. This town was taken from Groton in 1836. It was formerly called North Groton. It is 7 miles N. by E. from New London and 8 S. fron Norwich. There is a pretty village, of some thirty houses, at Gale's ferry, on the Thames. The population of the town, in 1836, was about 2,000. About twenty of the Pequot tribe of Indians reside here: a miserable remnant of a great and powerful nation.
This town was named in honor of two brothers, natives of Groton: Col. Ledyard, the brave defender of Groton Heights in 1781;—and John Ledyard, the celebrated traveler, who died at Cairo, in Egypt, in 1789, aged 38. John Ledyard was probably as distinguished a traveler as can be found on record. "Endowed with an original and comprehensive genius, he beheld with interest, and described with energy, the scenes and objects around him; and by comparing them with what he had seen in other regions of the globe, he was enabled to give his narrative all the varied effect of contrast and resemblance."
This accurate observer of mankind pays the following tribute to female character:
"I have always remarked," says he, "that women in all countries are civil and obliging, tender and humane: that they are ever inclined to be gay and cheerful, timorous and modest; and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action. Not haughty, nor arrogant, nor supercilious, they are full of courtesy and fond of society; more liable in general to err than man, but in general also more virtuous, and performing more good actions, than he. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself, in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise. In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden and frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide spread of regions of the wandering Tartar; if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the women have ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so. And add to this virtue, so worthy the appellation of benevolence, their actions have been performed in so free and kind a manner, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel, with a double relish."
