232 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



ders, strove continually, and after 1826 with the aid of 

 Charles Waterton in England, to hamper Audubon's 

 progress, to discredit him as a man of integrity, and 

 to break down his growing reputation as a naturalist. 

 Though Ord was justified to some extent in his attacks 

 upon Audubon which were made over Wilson's shoul- 

 ders long after that estimable man was laid in the grave, 

 the matter was carried too far. Neither of the rivals 

 was wholly without fault, and a century is far too long 

 to continue any quarrel, especially when one of those 

 whose reputation was concerned was never a party to 

 it. 



Audubon, as we have seen, frankly attributed to per- 

 sonal vanity his failure to patronize Wilson's work, 

 and added that "even at that time my collections were 

 greater than his." But it should be noticed that money 

 was far from plentiful with him at that moment. He 

 was, in short, at the point of failure in the Louisville 

 enterprise, and with Rozier was obliged to move down 

 the river not long after the date of Wilson's visit. Au- 

 dubon has been represented as at this time a well-to-do 

 man of leisure, of fastidious tastes. Nothing could have 

 been wider of the mark. He was still more of a sports- 

 man than a naturalist, and when not occupied with 

 drawing, he spent most of his time in the forest, to the 

 neglect of his trade. We may be sure that he was 

 quite as used to roughing it as any man on the frontier. 



