198 Life of Audubon, 



Louisiana," he writes, " we were pleasantly surprised to 

 find that our temporary home was within range of much 

 of Audubon's most faithfully searched country. Almost 

 every old resident we met could tell us something about 

 the man ; and although we heard much to satisfy us that 

 his pursuits were altogether unappreciated, yet we never 

 heard anything that did not reflect honor on his charac- 

 ter as an enthusiastic disciple of nature, and a superior 

 man, and not of one characteristic that displayed vanity. 

 On the contrary, he was almost child-like in his habits, 

 he was so inoffensive and unobtrusive where his pursuits 

 were not concerned. At all events the details of his 

 daily experiences in the swamps of the Mississippi, his 

 patient sufferings from heat, storm and hunger, while sat- 

 isfying himself of some habit of a single bird, tell of a 

 character over which inordinate vanity could have exer- 

 ted no perceptible influence. 



" Audubon was of French extraction ; he therefore in- 

 herited the mercurial peculiarities of his race ; and when 

 a youth, possessed of liberal resources, he was fond of 

 display, but the grave pursuits of business and the fierce 

 impulse he 'received from nature to be an ornithologist, 

 and the many pecuniary misfortunes that befel him on 

 the threshold of his life, sobered his judgment and pre- 

 pared the way for that entire absorption of all his great 

 powers that resulted finally in the production of his im- 

 mortal works. 



" In one of the first plantation houses I visited on my 

 arrival in Louisiana, I was attracted by the covering of 

 a rude fireboard, which upon being attentively examined, 

 I discovered was covered over with very sketchy, but nev- 

 ertheless very expressive and masterly drawings of birds, 

 mere outlines, yet full of spirit and most suggestive. I 

 asked my host where these things came from, and much 

 to my surprise he informed me that the bits of paper I 



