SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST 193 



their account current with the Bakewell house, 6 it is evi- 

 dent that they opened a retail shop in Louisville at 

 once, for on September 29 they were charged with $57 

 for an order of powder horns and shotbags. In the 

 same record there is a more interesting entry under date 

 of December 31, 1807: "advanced per [sailing packet] 

 Jane, for indigo and expences . . . $1,516.43," ordered 

 evidently through Mr. Bakewell, presumably for export 

 to France. This incident Audubon must have had in 

 mind when in after life he wrote: "The mercantile busi- 

 ness did not suit me. The very first venture which I 

 undertook was in indigo; it cost me several hundred 

 pounds, the whole of which was lost." It may be re- 

 called that in his letter of April 24 of this year, Audubon 

 wrote Francois Rozier 7 that the Bakewell house had 

 sent him a consignment of indigo by the same ship, 

 Captain Sammis, and hoped for its favorable sale in 

 France. No doubt the venture succeeded so well that 

 the young traders were induced to repeat the experi- 

 ment. As it happened, however, on December 22, a 

 week before this entry for the indigo was made, the 

 famous Embargo Act of President Jefferson had taken 

 effect, with the result of cutting off all exports to Eng- 

 land and France and at the same time of paralyzing 

 American trade. The Bakewell house, as we have al- 

 ready noticed, like so many others, immediately went 

 down, and the partners found that their tobacco and 

 other western produce found so little sale in New York 

 that by April 7, 1808, they were obliged to call for an 

 extension of their notes. 



Notwithstanding the gloomy outlook for trade, 

 Audubon had no fears for the future. As early as 



6 See Appendix I, Document No. 11. 



7 See Chapter XI, page 158. 



