CHAPTER VI, 



Audubon leaves Cincinnati with Captain Cumming — Arrival at 

 Natchez — Departure for New Orleans — Arrival at New Orleans 

 — Want of Success — Vanderlyn^ the Painter — Audubon leaves 

 New Orleans for Kentucky — Return to New Orleans — Review 

 of Work done since leaving Home. 



|N the i2th of October, 1820, Audubon left Cin- 

 cinnati in company with Captain Cumming, an 

 American engineer who had been appointed to 

 make a survey of the Mississippi river, and after fourteen 

 days of drifting down the Ohio, the flat-boat which con- 

 tained the scientific " expedition " reached the Mississippi 

 river. The naturaHst had failed to receive the money due 

 to him at Cincinnati, and vexed and discouraged, he de- 

 termined even without means to seek a new field for em- 

 ployment. 



From a letter addressed to the Governor of Arkansas 

 at this date, it is evident that Audubon had determined 

 on a lengthened excursion in the pursuit of ornithological 

 specimens, including the States of Mississippi, Alabama, 

 and Florida, afterwards retracing his steps to New Or- 

 leans up the Red River, down the Arkansas, and home- 

 ward to his wife. He had received letters of recommen- 

 dation from General, afterwards President Harrison, and 

 from Henry Clay, and good prospects seemed to dawn. 

 He had determined in any case to complete one hundred 

 drawings of birds before returning to Cincinnati, and he 

 fulfilled this resolve. 



*'^0n a clear frosty morning in December," writes 

 Audubon in his journal, " I arrived at Natchez, and found 



