JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 57 

 idea of visiting Boston, he took pas- 

 sage on a canal boat for Eochester. 

 His fellow-passengers on the boat were 

 doubtful whether he was a government 

 officer, commissioner, or spy. At that 

 time Eochester had only five thousand 

 inhabitants. After a couple of days he 

 went on to Buffalo and, he says, wrote 

 under his name at the hotel this sen- 

 tence : " Who, like Wilson, will ramble, 

 but never, like that great man, die 

 under the lash of a bookseller." 



He visited Niagara, and gives a good 

 account of the impressions which the 

 cataract made upon him. He did not 

 cross the bridge to Goat Island on ac- 

 count of the low state of his funds. In 

 Buffalo he obtained a good dinner of 

 bread and milk for twelve cents, and 

 went to bed cheering himself with 

 thoughts of other great men who had 

 encountered greater hardships and had 

 finally achieved fame. 



He soon left Buffalo, taking a deck 



