CHAPTER XX 



AUDUBON'S ^NEID, 1819-1824: WANDERINGS THROUGH 



THE WEST AND SOUTH 



Pivotal period in Audubon's career — His spur and balance-wheel — Resort 

 to portraiture — Taxidermist in the Western Museum — Settles in Cin- 

 cinnati — History of his relations with Dr. Drake — Decides to make his 

 avocation his business — Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi with 

 Mason and Cummings — Experiences of travel without a cent of capital — 

 Life in New Orleans— Vanderlyn's recommendations — Original draw- 

 ings — Chance meeting with Mrs. Pirrie, and engagement as tutor at 

 "Oakley" — Enchantments of West Feliciana — "My lovely Miss Pirrie" — 

 The jealous doctor — Famous drawing of the rattlesnake — Leaves St. 

 Francisville and is adrift again in New Orleans — Obtains pupils in 

 drawing and is joined by his family — Impoverished, moves to Natchez, 

 and Mrs. Audubon becomes a governess — Injuries to his drawings — 

 The labors of years destroyed by rats — Teaching in Tennessee — Parting 

 with Mason — First lessons in oils — Mrs. Audubon's school at "Beech- 

 woods" — Painting tour fails — Stricken at Natchez — At the Percys' 

 plantation — Walk to Louisville — Settles at Shippingport. 



Audubon's failure at Henderson was the crucial 

 turning point in his career. For the five years that 

 immediately followed he led a peripatetic existence in 

 the southern and western states, seldom tarrying long 

 at one point, often leaving his family for months at a 

 time, living from hand to mouth, but ever bent on per- 

 fecting those products of his hand and brain, his life 

 studies of American birds and plants. 



At this crisis Audubon could have accomplished 

 nothing but for the intelligent devotion of his capable 

 wife. Generous, emotional, inclined to be self-indul- 

 gent, Audubon needed both the example and the spur 

 of a strong character such as his wife possessed, and at 

 this time Lucy Audubon furnished both the motive 



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