FINAL REVERSES IN BUSINESS 249 



East and Bakewell was about to return to New Orleans 

 in the employ of a firm of Liverpool merchants who 

 dealt in cotton. Bakewell, who had seen much of the 

 South since the failure of his uncle in New York, in- 

 duced Audubon to join him in an independent commis- 

 sion business, with the assurance that his French 

 nationality w r ould help their undertakings. According 

 to Vincent Nolte, when they were descending the Ohio 

 in December, 1811, Audubon displayed a business card, 

 showing the firm name of "Audubon and Bakewell," 

 and indicating that they were to deal in such homely 

 products as pork, lard and flour. Thomas Bakewell, 

 we are told, taking with him all the disposable funds of 

 Audubon, who continued to send him "almost all the 

 money" that he could raise, opened their business at New 

 Orleans in the winter or spring of 1812, just in time for 

 the war, which broke out in June, to destroy it. When 

 he returned north, in August of that year, Thomas 

 Bakewell, said the naturalist, suddenly appeared one 

 day at "Meadow Brook Farm," while he was making 

 a drawing of an otter, and after bewailing their misfor- 

 tune in trade, departed. 



At the approach of spring in 1812 Audubon was hard 

 pressed for funds, and Rozier's notes to him being then 

 overdue he set out on foot for Ste. Genevieve to collect 

 his money in person. He went out with a party of 

 friendly Osage Indians, but returned, still afoot and 

 unpaid, with his faithful dog as his only companion. 3 

 The prairies were then flooded and converted into vast 



3 This journey was probably made in February, though the date 

 is given as April (see Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals, 

 vol. i, p. 44), if the legends of four drawings of this time are to be 

 trusted; all are labeled Pennsylvania, and bear the following dates: Swamp 

 Sparrow, March, 1812; Spotted Sandpiper, April 22, 1812; White-throated 

 Sparrow, April 24, 1812; and Whippoorwill, May 7, 1812. 



