Burns — On Alexander Wilson. 145 



army during the second war with England, and was for some 

 tim.e adjutant general of the state, with the title of colonel. 

 Mrs. Carr lived until October 30th, 1858.^ 



The susceptible Wilson subsequently became engaged to a 

 Miss Sarah Miller of Winterlon, and a letter from him to her, 

 while on his western trip in 1810, has been preserved, showing 

 little of the ardent lover of earlier days. He writes in part : 

 " Nine hundred miles distant from you sits Wilson, the hunter 

 of birds' nes's and sparrows, just preparing to enter on a wil- 

 derness of 780 miles — most of it in the territory of Indians — 

 alone, but in good spirits, and expecting to have every pocket 

 crammed with skins of new and extraordinary birds before he 

 reaches the city of Nfew Orleans. I dare say you have long ago 

 accused me of cruel forgetfulness in not writing as I promised, 

 but that I assure you, was not the cause. To have forgotten 

 my friends in the midst of strangers, and to have forgotten yon 

 of all others, would have been impossible. But I still waited 

 until I should have something very interesting to amuse you 

 with, and am obliged at last to take up the pen without having 

 anything remarkable to tell you of." The fact was that his 

 " American Ornithology " had become his chief love ; he had 

 learned to wait complacently upon prosperity before the con- 

 summation of matrimony, and we all know the end ; his tiancee, 

 in conjunction with George Ord, became his executrix at the 

 time of his death in 1813. 



^ Harshberger's Botanists of Philadelphia and Their Work. 



