JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 47 

 lessons, painting birds, and wandering 

 about the country, began again. His 

 earnings proving inadequate to support 

 the family, his wife took a position as 

 governess in the family of a Mr. Brand. 



In the spring, acting upon the judg- 

 ment of his wife, he concluded to leave 

 New Orleans again, and to try his fort- 

 unes elsewhere. He paid all his bills 

 and took steamer for Natchez, paying 

 his passage by drawing a crayon por- 

 trait of the captain and his wife. 



On the trip up the Mississippi, two 

 hundred of his bird portraits were sorely 

 damaged by the breaking of a bottle of 

 gunpowder in the chest in which they 

 were being conveyed. 



Three times in his career he met with 

 disasters to his drawings. On the oc- 

 casion of his leaving Hendersonville to 

 go to Philadelphia, he had put two 

 hundred of his original drawings in a 

 wooden box and had left them in charge 

 of a friend. On his return, several 



