34 Audubon's Western Journal 



to his home at Fort Washington and many others 

 also came back to the east. The greater part of 

 the company, I believe, remained upon the Pacific 

 Slope; but I have been unable to locate them or 

 their descendants, except in the few instances I 

 have mentioned. Though the company proved an 

 utter failure financially, yet nearly every man 

 eventually reimbursed the Messrs. Kingsland for 

 their outlay, and in five instances the friends of 

 those who died did for them that, which living 

 they would doubtless have done for themselves. 



At the time of the California journey my father 

 was thirty-six, tall, strong and alert though always 

 slender, keen of vision and hearing, quick in move- 

 ment and temperament, and with most tender and 

 skillful hands as those have testified whom he 

 nursed in the dreadful cholera days. He had 

 inherited from his father the gift of making and 

 keeping friends among all classes, and of giving 

 them confidence in him — the result of his quick 

 and deep sympathy, his unselfishness and his abso- 

 lute truthfulness. He was never indolent; what- 

 ever work had to be done, his was the hardest part 

 — he never shirked, never grumbled. As evidence 

 of this trait of his character I quote from one of his 

 companions. Lieutenant Browning, whose son has 

 kindly given me some extracts from his letters: 

 "Mr. Audubon is always doing somebody's else 

 work as well as his own;" "Mr. Audubon never 



