CHAPTER XXII 



TO EUROPE AND SUCCESS 



Audubon sails from New Orleans — Life at Sea — Liverpool — The Rath- 

 bones — Exhibition of drawings an immediate success — Personal appear- 

 ance — Painting habits resumed — His pictures and methods — Manchester 

 visited — Plans for publication — The Birds of America — Welcome at 

 Edinburgh — Lizars engraves the Turkey Cock — In the role of society's 

 lion — His exhibition described by a French critic — Honors of science 

 and the arts — Contributions to journals excite criticism — Aristocratic 

 patrons — Visit to Scott — The Wild Pigeon and the rattlesnake — Letter 

 to his wife — Prospectus — Journey to London. 



When Audubon had reached the age of forty-one, 

 his fortunes were destined to undergo still further kalei- 

 doscopic changes, but the patterns and hue were now 

 of a more agreeable character. He had failed repeated- 

 ly in business ventures of various kinds; he had failed 

 also to find either encouragement or support for his 

 ambitious schemes of publishing his drawings in the 

 United States. But there was still a chance for success 

 in the Old World, and thither he was determined to go 

 to try the hazard of fortune in either England or France. 

 Accordingly, he left his family at St. Francisville and 

 went to New Orleans, where he engaged passage on a 

 cotton schooner bound for Liverpool, named the Delos, 

 Captain Joseph E. Hatch. With his drawings, a few 

 books, and a purse, if not ample, at least sufficient for 

 his immediate needs, and fortified with numerous let- 

 ters, he finally set sail on the 17th of May, 1826. 



This voyage, like every other which the naturalist 

 ever made, was turned to good account; the log book 



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