224 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



purpose of placing the rival of his friend in an unenvia- 

 ble light. 



Wilson's diary, which apparently was never seen by 

 any of Audubon's friends, is now known to us only 

 through such extracts as Ord and Waterton, his bitter 

 enemies, have seen fit to make public; the original has 

 probably been destroyed, for it cannot be traced later 

 than 1840, when it was still in the hands of George Ord. 15 

 Charles Waterton gave similar extracts from this famous 

 journal in one of his philippics against Audubon in 1834, 

 when he said that it was the testimony of this record 

 that defeated Audubon's friends in their initial attempt 

 to bring him into the Academy of Natural Sciences at 

 Philadelphia. Wilson's narrative of his adventures at 

 Louisville in 1810, as given by Ord and Waterton, is 

 as follows: 16 



March 17. Take my baggage and grope my way to Louisville 

 put up at the Indian Queen tavern, and gladly sit down to 

 rest myself. 



March 18. Rise quite refreshed. Find a number of land-specu- 

 lators here. 17 



March 19. Rambling round the town with my gun. Examined 



Mr. 's drawings in crayons very good. Saw two new 



birds he had, both Motacillae. 



March 20. Set out this afternoon with the gun killed nothing 

 new. [People in taverns here devour their meals. Many 



18 See Orel's charge of plagiarism against Audubon (Bibl. No. 145) 

 in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. i (1840). 

 So far as could be ascertained in the summer of 1915, Wilson's diary of 

 1810 was not in the possession of any library or scientific society in 

 Philadelphia, nor was it in the large collection of books which was 

 given by Ord to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of that city at the 

 time of his death in 1866. 



18 The bracketed lines are from Waterton, who once stated that he 

 had examined the original. 



"This sentence is quoted from Burns' biographical sketch of Wilson 

 (Bibl., No. 161), but tenses are changed to correspond with other entries. 



