JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. j^ 



By this failure of his expectations and other disasters, Au- 

 dubon was compelled to work for a living. He took up the 

 drawing of crayon portraits with much success, and seemed to 

 get a new start in life. In a short time he received an invitation 

 to become a curator of the museum at Cincinnati, and for the 

 preparation of birds received a liberal remuneration. In con- 

 junction with this situation he opened a drawing school in 

 the same city, and obtained from this employment additional 

 emolument sufficient to support his family comfortably. His 

 teaching succeeded well until several of his pupils started on 

 their own account. The work at the museum having been fin- 

 ished, Audubon fell back upon his portrait painting and such 

 resources as his genius could command. Applying for assist- 

 ance to an old friend whom he had helped into business, the 

 ungrateful wretch declared he would do nothing for his bene- 

 factor, and further added that he would not even recommend 

 one who had such wandering habits. On more occasions than 

 this his genius for discovery was made an argument against 

 him. 



In October, 1820, Audubon left Cincinnati, and sailed down 

 the Ohio in company with Captain Cumming, a civil engineer, 

 who had been appointed to make a survey of the Mississippi 

 River. He was provided with letters of introduction from 

 General Harrison and Henry Clay, and intended a long orni- 

 thological excursion through Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida, 

 up Red River, and down the Arkansas. At Bayou Sara, in the 

 following June, he accepted an engagement with Mrs. Perrie 

 to teach her daughter drawing during the summer months at 

 sixty dollars a month. Mrs. Feme's real aim is supposed to 

 have been to provide for Audubon an opportunity to carry on 

 his pursuits under the guise of an employment which would be 

 congenial and not interfere with his work. Later in the year 

 he was invited to join another artist in painting a panorama 

 of New Orleans. But, he wrote in his journal, " My birds, my 

 beloved birds of America, occupy all my time, and nearly all 

 my thoughts, and I do not wish to see any other perspective 

 than the last specimen of those drawings." 



For the first two months of 1822 it is written by his wife in 

 her Life, " The records of Audubon's life are sparse and imper- 

 fect, on account of his inability to purchase a book to write his 

 journal in ! " The one at last obtained was made of thin, 



