EXPERIMENTS IN TRADE 237 



them was, and for a considerable time remained, one 

 vast canebrake. All the commodities known to the pio- 

 neer store were scarce, but the people of Henderson 

 were friendly, and the new settlers had been provident in 

 bringing with them a goodly supply of flour and "bacon 

 hams." Moreover, the Ohio, which was half a mile wide 

 at that point, was well stocked with fish, and the woods 

 and canebrakes were alive with birds, not to speak of 

 larger and more important game. Not many years be- 

 fore, wild turkeys had been so plentiful that they were 

 not sold but were given away, while a large buck deer 

 could be bought in the season for fifty cents. 



During their stay at Henderson, Rozier was in his 

 habitual place behind the counter and attended to what 

 little business was done, while Audubon with a Ken- 

 tucky lad named John Pope, who was nominally a 

 clerk, roamed the country in eager pursuit of rare birds, 

 and with rod and gun bountifully supplied the table. 

 Audubon's first abode in the town was, as he said, "a 

 log-cabin, not a log-house" in which the richest piece of 

 furniture was their child's cradle. He soon began to 

 cultivate a garden, but his experience in horticulture 

 must have been limited, for he naively remarks that 

 the rankness of the soil kept the seeds they planted 

 "far beneath the tall weeds which sprang up the first 

 year." 



Financial distress and hard times were already being 

 felt in the Blue Grass State, and these conditions were 

 not destined soon to improve. After experimenting for 

 six months, or more, at Henderson, our two "rolling 

 stones" determined to push still farther west and try 

 their luck at a more promising point. They had hoped 

 to reach St. Louis but finally went instead to Ste. Gen- 

 evieve, then a small French settlement in Upper Louis- 



