40 MEMOIR OF 



gerous rivers with hurried marches and many 

 other inconveniences to encounter, yet so far am 

 I from being satisfied with what I have seen, or 

 discouraged by the fatigues which every traveller 

 must submit to, that I feel more eager than ever to 

 commence some more extensive expedition, where 

 scenes and subjects, entirely new and generally un- 

 known, might reward my curiosity; and where, 

 perhaps, my humble acquisitions might add some- 

 thing to the stores of knowledge. For all the 

 hazards and privations incident to such an under- 

 taking, I feel confident in my own spirit and resolu- 

 tion. ^* ith no family to enchain my affections 

 no ties but those of friendship and the most ardent 

 love to my adopted country with a constitution 

 which hardens amidst fatigues and with a dis- 

 position sociable and open, which can find itself at 

 home by an Indian fire in the depth of the woods, 

 as well as in the best apartment of the civilized ; 

 I have at present a real design of becoming a tra- 

 veller." 



On the 2d July 1805, he again writes to Bartram, 

 after describing the pinching poverty which he had 

 to bear. " I dare say you will smile at my pre- 

 sumption, when I tell you that I have seriously 

 begun to make a collection of drawings of the birds 

 to be found in Pennsylvania, or that occasionally 

 pass through it. Twenty-eight, as a beginning, I 

 send for your opinion." In his examination of the 

 volumes of Edwards, Wilson found that he had 

 etched his own plates, a process of detail which 



