EXPLORATIONS IN FLORIDA 25 



sarily entailed, in all probability, deterred the naturalist 

 from the more hazardous and uncertain enterprise of 

 attempting to reach the Rocky Mountains and the Pa- 

 cific Coast, which for years had been the great object of 

 his ambition. At all events, after their work was fin- 

 ished at Key West, the party returned to Charleston. 

 When returning previously they had boarded the packet 

 schooner Agnes, which was to bear them with their col- 

 lections to Charleston. Audubon, however, left the ves- 

 sel at Savannah, in order to deliver letters from the 

 Rathbones of Liverpool to a number of their rich mer- 

 chant friends in the former city. One of these, named 

 William Gaston, 19 at first declined to subscribe to The 

 Birds of America, on the ground of its great expense 

 and the demands made upon his purse by charity, but 

 his indifference was quickly overcome : not only did he 

 write his name on Audubon's list, but he immediately 

 went out and obtained three other subscribers; he even 

 insisted on becoming Audubon's agent at Savannah, and 

 saw to it that none of those subscriptions was ever al- 

 lowed to lapse in after years. Savannah eventually 

 gave him six subscribers, which was more than were 

 credited to either Philadelphia or Baltimore. 



At Charleston the party disbanded. Lehman re- 

 turned to Philadelphia, whither Audubon later followed 

 him, but Henry Ward obtained a position with the 

 Museum of Natural History, in which Bachman was 

 interested, and he appears to have been of much assist- 

 ance both to Bachman and to his friend in procuring for 

 them specimens of new or desirable birds and mammals ; 

 at a later day, however, he seems to have fallen into dis- 

 esteem on account of unpaid debts. 



19 See "A Merchant of Savannah," Ornithological Biography (Bibl. No. 

 2), vol. ii, p. 549. 



