JONATHAN CARVER AND THE NAME OREGON 363
committee of his majesty's most honorable privy council for plantation affairs", who, in July, 1769, found that his discov- eries were of no value and that he was entitled to nothing except by way of compassion or relief. Later this relief, to the extent of the expenditures of his journey, was granted on the condition that he deposit with the government all his charts and journals, and still later he was given permission to publish these privately, which after more long waiting he was able to do. Meantime there appears another petition by Carver to the Crown for appointment as agent among the Indians of the Upper Mississippi, upon which no action seems to have been taken. 20 This no doubt gave rise to the story that in 1775 the king had decided to equip an expedition to the Mississippi River under the command of Captain Carver, but was pre- vented by the outbreak of the War of the Revolution. That tale came from the Reverend Samuel Peters, D. D., during his many years (1804-1824) of remarkable activity and colossal lying as chief promoter of the claimants for the "Carver Grant". 21 The said Peters, during an exceedingly long life, injected spice into the annals of Connecticut, Vermont and Wisconsin. But the vicissitudes of a poor author in London, also with a new family connection which could not have been inspiring, brought Carver to a pitiful death by starvation. It must be remembered that he was nearly sixty years of age when arriving in London.
When nearing the end of his life, Captain Carver fell into the hands of kindly men whose names were well known in London, Dr. John Fothergill and Dr. John Coakley Lettsom, the latter of whom bought the rights of a publisher in the third edition of the Travels, which Carver had himself arranged for, and placed the books on the market for the benefit of the London widow and child of Captain Carver. To that edition Dr. Lettsom contributed a brief biographical sketch of the author and added the deed from the Sioux chiefs as an appen- dix. Dr. Lettsom was a gentleman and a scholar and a gener- ous man, but all he knew of the career of Captain Carver was
20 This memorial is printed in full by Mr. Lee in Proceedings of the Historical Society of Wisconsin for 1012.
21 See Collections of Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. 6, p. 238; also see the Review of Mississippi Valley Historical Society, vol. 7, No. i.
