An Eccentric 89 



leave my family. My money is scarce, and I find great 

 difficulty in collecting what is owing to me. 



'^ March 16. Paid all my bills in New Orleans, and 

 having put my baggage on board of the steamer Eclat, 

 obtained a passage to Natchez in the steamer, in return 

 for a cra/on portrait of the captain and his wife. 



'•''March 19. Opened a chest with two hundred of my 

 bird portraits in it, and found them sorely damaged by 

 the breaking of a bottle containing a quantity of gunpow- 

 der. I had several portraits to draw during the passage. 



" March 24. One of the passengers accused Alexan- 

 der Wilson, the ornithologist, of intemperate habits, but I« 

 had the satisfaction of defending his character from as- 

 persion. I had hope of success in Natchez, and soon ex- 

 pected to be followed by my wife and family. My wife 

 in the meantime remained at New Orleans, in the family 

 of Mr. Brand." 



In closing his recollections of New Orleans, Audubon 

 relates an amusing history of a painter, whose eccentrici- 

 ties fascinated the naturalist. The genius was first ob- 

 served by the naturalist on the Levee at New Orleans, 

 and his odd costume and appearance are thus de- 

 scribed : 



" His head was covered by a straw hat, the brim of 

 which might cope with those worn by the fair sex in 

 1830; his neck was exposed to the weather; the broad 

 frill of a shirt, then fashionable, flopped about his breast, 

 whilst an extraordinary collar, carefully arranged, fell over 

 the top of his coat. The latter was of a light-green color, 

 harmonizing well with a pair of flowing yellow nankeen 

 trousers and a pink waistcoat, from the bosom of which, 

 amidst a large bunch of the splendid flowers of the mag- 

 nolia, protruded part of a young alligator, which seemed 

 more anxious to glide through the muddy waters of a 

 swamp than to spend its life swinging to and fro amongst 



