52 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



birds were for the completion of his second volume, 

 and seventeen, representing water fowl, were to form 

 the initial series of the third; all, as usual, were heavily 

 insured. 



Audubon left New York with his wife on September 

 25 and spent nearly a month en route to Charleston, 

 while John, who intended to accompany his father to 

 Florida, went direct by water. Dr. Thomas L. Mc- 

 Kenney, of Philadelphia, in a letter to Lewis Cass, Sec- 

 retary of War, said : 23 



Mr. Audubon makes no more of tracking it in all directions 

 over this, and I may add other countries, than a shot star does 

 in crossing the heavens. He goes after winged things, but 

 sometimes needs the aid of — at least a few feathers, to assist 

 him better to fly. He means to coast it again round Florida — 

 make a track through Arkansas — go up the Missouri — pass on 

 to the Rocky Mountains, and thence to the Pacific. He will 

 require some of your official aid. 



As a contrast to the warmth of Audubon's greeting 

 in Philadelphia, while in that city he was arrested for 

 debt, and was on the point of being taken to jail when 

 he was offered bail by a friend. "This event," he said, 

 "brings to my mind so many disagreeable thoughts con- 

 nected with my former business transactions, in which I 

 was always the single loser, that I will only add I made 

 all necessary arrangements to have it paid." 



Four new subscribers were obtained at Baltimore, 

 but when the naturalist applied to Secretary Cass at 

 Washington for the privilege of accompanying an ex- 

 pedition to the Rocky Mountains under the patronage 

 of the Government, he met with a cool reception, and 



23 Lucy Audubon, ed., Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist 

 (Bibl. No. 73), p. 377. 



