I 



76 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



/While at Louisville in March, 1810, there walked into the store 

 one day Alexander Wilson, then on a canvassing trip through the 

 west. Audubon saw for the first time a volume of the American 

 Ornithology and in return showed to Wilson his own drawings 

 of birds. What were the feelings of the two men ? who can tell ? 

 Wilson made very little mention of the meeting in his diary, while 

 Audubon years later made charges of plagiarism against Wilson 

 which seem not to accord with the facts and make a disagreeable 



/ incident in the history of American ornithology. It would be 



/ interesting to know what part this chance interview with Wilson 

 and the sight of his book played in the ultimate determination of 



\ Audubon to publish his own drawings. Up to this time he cer- 



i tainly seems to have entertained no such idea. 



An equally important incident, although it came to nothing, was 

 Audubon's application for a position on the Lewis and Clark 

 expedition. It is hard to suggest what influence the presence of 

 a man of his attainments would have had upon the scientific 

 results of this historic exploration. 



Besides Audubon's association with Rozier he was also a partner 

 in the business of his brother-in-law, Thomas W. Bakewell, at 

 New Orleans and about this time this venture failed, thus reducing 

 Audubon's means materially. He now determined upon a journey 

 back to Pennsylvania and traveled on horseback through Ten- 

 nessee and Georgia and thence north to his old home. Here he 

 found that his Mill Grove property had been sold by his father-in- 

 law and upon receiving the sum that had been realized he returned 

 to Henderson and again engaged in business. For the time he 

 prospered, but he had no judgment in commerical affairs; new 

 partners and new ventures were rapidly followed by new mis- 

 fortunes and before long everything had to be relinquished to the 

 creditors of the company and Audubon was left penniless. " With- 

 out a dollar in the world," he says, "bereft of all revenues beyond 

 my own personal talents and acquirements, I left my dear log 

 house, my delightful garden and orchards, with that heaviest of 

 burdens, a heavy heart, and turned my face toward Louisville. 

 This was the saddest of all my journeys, the only time in my 



