AUDUBON'S ^NEID 325 



from ready for publication, he felt that at least he might 

 better his condition, and with this end in view he sent 

 his drawings from Natchez to that city; a hasty visit 

 was made also to New Orleans, for the purpose, no 

 doubt, of obtaining credentials to possible patrons in 

 the East. At last, on October 3, he started with Victor 

 on the steamer Magnet 12 for Louisville. Low water 

 quickly held them up after entering the mouth of the 

 Ohio, and they were obliged to disembark at the little 

 village of Trinity, at the mouth of Cash Creek, the scene 

 of Audubon's misadventures with Rozier thirteen years 

 before. The remoteness of the situation and the state 

 of their funds, which corresponded with that of the 

 river, left no alternative but to walk, and they under- 

 took to reach Louisville, several hundred miles distant, 

 afoot. Two other travelers joined them, and with Vic- 

 tor, then a lad of nearly fourteen, the party left the creek 

 at noon on October 15 and struck across country through 

 the forests and canebrakes. At Green River, which was 

 reached on the 21st, Victor gave out from sheer exhaus- 

 tion, 23 and the remainder of the journey was finished 

 in a Jersey wagon. At length, said Audubon, "I en- 

 tered Louisville with thirteen dollars in my pocket." 

 At Shippingport, then an independent town at the Falls 

 of the Ohio, he was obliged to settle down for the win- 

 ter. A place for Victor was found in the counting- 

 house of Nicholas A. Berthoud, while the father under- 

 took anything that came to hand, painting portraits, 

 landscapes, panels for river boats, and even street signs, 



"One of the early steamboats on the Ohio that had been built at 

 Pittsburgh, in 1821, by Thomas W. Bakewell, his brother-in-law and 

 former partner. 



23 See "A Tough Walk for a Youth," Ornithological Biography (Bibl. 

 No. 2), vol. iii, p. 371; and "The Hospitality of the Woods," ibid., vol. i, 

 p. 383. 



