Lord Edward FitzGerald - Explorer in The New World

Explorer in The New World

The romantic temperament of the young Irishman found congenial soil in the wild surroundings of unexplored Canadian forests, and his enthusiasm for a life closer to nature may have been fortified by study of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings, for which at a later period Lord Edward expressed his admiration. In February 1789, guided by compass, he traversed the country, practically unknown to white men, from Fredericton, New Brunswick to Quebec, falling in with Indians by the way, with whom he fraternized; and in a subsequent expedition he was formally adopted at Detroit by the Bear tribe of Hurons as one of their chiefs, and made his way down the Mississippi to New Orleans, whence he returned to England. The Author Patrick O'Brian based one of his main characters Stephen Maturin on one of the cousin's of Lord Edward FitzGerald in his book The Far Side of the World.

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