206 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



nearing Louisville at nightfall he became alarmed lest 

 he should be drawn into the suction of the Falls, as no 

 lights could be seen on the banks: cautiously coasting 

 along the shore, where he encountered many logs and 

 sawyers, at last he entered the Creek and secured his 

 skiff to a Kentucky boat; then, "loading myself with my 

 baggage," he wrote, "I groped my way through a swamp 

 up to the town." 3 When Wilson had seen the Falls by 

 daylight, he felt that his fears of the night before had 

 been groundless, and declared that he should have no 

 hesitation in navigating them single-handed. 



It will be interesting to follow Wilson's journey a 

 little further, before returning to the Louisville visit. 

 After passing a few days in Audubon's town, he struck 

 out into the heart of Kentucky, calling at Shelby ville, 

 Frankfort and Lexington, and eventually reaching 

 Nashville, Tennessee. Not far from the latter place he 

 met a landlord of admirable discrimination, Isaac Wal- 

 ton by name, who showed himself worthy of his illustri- 

 ous ancestor by declaring that Wilson was evidently 

 traveling for the good of the world, and added: "I 

 cannot, and will not charge you anything. Whenever 

 you come this way, call and stay with me; you shall be 

 welcome." 



At Nashville Wilson wrote to Miss Sarah Miller, the 

 lady to whom he was engaged but whom he did not live 

 to marry: "Nine hundred miles distant from you sits 

 Wilson, the hunter of birds' nests and sparrows, just 

 preparing to enter on a wilderness of 780 miles — most 

 of it in the territory of Indians — alone but in good spir- 

 its, and expecting to have every pocket crammed with 

 skins of new and extraordinary birds before he reach 



3 Letter to Alexander Lawson, dated at Lexington, April 4, 1810; see 

 Grosart, Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson, vol. i, p. 189. 



