290 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



famous Black-tail Deer. I am in a great bustle, the office is 

 full of Californians. 



The California party, which eventually consisted of 

 nearly one hundred young men, sought to reach the 

 goldfields by way of Texas, Mexico and Arizona; at- 

 tacked by cholera in the valley of the Rio Grande and 

 deserted by their leader, a remnant of the company chose 

 in his stead young Audubon, who bravely conducted 

 them to their destination. John Audubon returned in 

 the following year, after thirteen of the members of 

 the party and $27,000 had been lost in the venture. 



Like a patriarch of old, as a friend had once pictured 

 him, Audubon passed the end of his days surrounded 

 by loving and able retainers, who, like "ministers of 

 state," were only too glad to execute his every wish. 

 Distinguished and handsome in age, appearing to many 

 older than he actually was, for years his snowy locks 

 and benign countenance attracted every passer on the 

 street, and for each he had a friendly look, word, or 

 greeting, until in him were fulfilled the words of the 

 Psalmist: "When thou art young thou goest whither 

 thou wiliest, but when thou art old another shall lead 

 thee, and thou shalt go whither thou wiliest not." On 

 the 27th of January, 1851, Jean Jacques Fougere Au- 

 dubon died, before attaining his sixty-seventh year, "as 

 gently as a child composing himself for his beautiful 

 sleep." 



