AUDUBON'S ^NEID 309 



and his companion, having selected their boots, went on 

 their way rejoicing. 



Audubon left Natchez on December 31, 1820, on a 

 keel boat belonging to his brother-in-law, Nicholas A. 

 Berthoud, who accompanied him, and at one o'clock the 

 steamer Columbus hauled off from the landing and 

 took them in tow. Towards evening, when they were 

 looking up their personal belongings, the naturalist 

 found to his dismay that a portfolio containing all of 

 the drawings that he had made on the voyage down the 

 river was missing. Letters were despatched to Natchez 

 friends, but it was not until the 16th of March that his 

 anxiety was relieved; the missing portfolio had been 

 found and left at the office of The Mississippi Repub- 

 lican, whence it was forwarded on his order, and reached 

 his hand on the 5th of April. "So very generous had 

 been the finder of it," he said, "that when I carefully 

 examined the drawings in succession, I found them all 

 present and uninjured, save one, which had probably 

 been kept by way of commission." 



On New Year's Day, 1821, they came to at Bayou 

 Sara, at the mouth of the inlet of that name, which 

 later saw much of Audubon and his family. On the 

 following day he made a likeness of the master of their 

 craft, Mr. Dickenson, for which he was paid in gold; 

 he also outlined two warblers by candle-light in order 

 to have time to finish them on the morrow. The captain 

 of their steamer in his anxiety to make haste had set 

 them adrift at this point, and they were obliged to make 

 their way as best they could, by aid of the current and 

 oars, to the port of New Orleans, which was finally 

 entered on Sunday, January 7, 1821. 



Audubon landed at New Orleans without enough 

 money to pay for a night's lodging, for someone had 



