SIDELIGHTS ON CONTEMPORARIES 95 



upon his scientific writings for the support of a family 

 of five children, oppressed by pecuniary difficulties, and, 

 no doubt, irritated by lack of success and the rebuffs 

 which a leading part in the Quinarian movement was 

 certain to entail. Audubon's letter 4 which follows 

 served to answer that of Swainson, bearing date of 

 January 30, 1830, 5 which had been received in America 

 but too late for the fulfillment of its commissions. 

 References to Audubon's "book," which unfortu- 

 nately proved a stumbling block in the path of friend- 

 ship, are noticed here and in Swainson's reply for the 

 first time. 



Audubon to William Swainson 



London, May 5th 1830. 

 My dear Mr. Swainson, 



You may be assured that nothing but an over [word un- 

 decipherable] or [another similar word] has stopt me from 

 writing to you sooner, Yet I would have had the pleasure of 

 announcing you my return to good old England had I not been 

 informed by Mr. Havell that you we apraised of it when last 

 in town & that more over you were quite well.— I hope that 

 your kind wife and children are equally so and happy. — I 

 brought my good wife with me to Liverpool where she is for 

 a while with her sister Mrs. Gordon & the family Rathbourn 

 We had a rough voyage of 25 days & glad to be back on this 

 hospitable shore. I am sorry to say that your last letter to 

 me (I presume) did not reach me in time to enable me to 

 procure either squirrels or birds for you. — I have indeed 

 brought about 150 birds and some of them good singers and 

 beautifull but all are on Double Elephant Paper — they may 

 and I hope they will please your eyes, when I have the satis- 

 faction to shake you by the hand the first time you come to 



4 For the history of the Audubon-Swainson correspondence, see Note, 

 Vol. I, p. 400. Swainson's letter which follows was first published by Ruth- 

 ven Deane (Bibl. No. 218), The Auk, vol. xxii, p. 248 (1905). 



8 Reproduced in Vol. I, p. 430. 



