LIFE OF WILSON. cxlv 



On the sixth of June our traveller reached New Orleans, dis- 

 tant from Natchez two hundred and fifty-two miles. As the 

 sickly season was fast approaching, it was deemed advisable 

 not to tarry long in this place; and his affairs being despatched, 

 he sailed on the twenty-fourth in a ship bound to New York, 

 at which place he arrived on the thirtieth of July; and soon 

 reached Philadelphia, enriched with a copious stock of materials 

 for his work, including several beautiful and hitherto unknown 

 birds.* 



In the newly settled country through which Wilson had to 

 pass, in his last journey, it was reasonable not to expect much 

 encouragement in the way of subscriptions. Yet he was not 

 only honoured with the names of some respectable individuals; 

 but also received hospitable treatment from several persons, 

 and those, too, to whom he had not been introduced. It is a 

 singular fact, that from those to whom he had letters of intro- 

 duction, and from whom most had beefl expected, he received 

 the fewest acts of civility. 



The principal events of his journey have been given in his 

 letters; but I might select from his diary many interesting pas- 

 sages, if the limits allotted to this memoir would admit of co- 

 piousness of detail. 



* The editor of Wilson's Poems, which were published at Paisley in 1816, 

 gives what he states to be an extract from one of our author's letters to his 

 father, wherein it is said that he had travelled through West Florida to New 

 Orleans, and had " sailed thence to East Florida, furnished with a letter to 

 the Spanish Governor." This passage needs explanation. Wilson was ne- 

 ver either in East or West Florida; (except a small part of the latter pro- 

 vince, through which the road to New Orleans passed,) but, in the event of 

 his going thither, had provided himself with a letter of introduction from 

 Don Luis de Onis, the Spanish ambassador to the United States, to Don En- 

 rique White, governor of East Florida, and another to Don Vincente Folch, 

 governor of West Florida. In his passage from New Orleans to New York, 

 he merely landed, for a few minutes, upon one or two desert islands lying in 

 the Florida Gulf. 



He departed from Philadelphia on the thirtieth of January, 1810; and re- 

 turned on the second of August, of the same year. It is stated in his diary 

 that the total amount of his expenses, until his arrival in New York, was the 

 sum of four hundred and fifty-five dollars. This particular is given as a proof 

 of how much may be performed, by a good economist, with slender means 



VOL. I. T 



