312 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Pacific Coast, to survey the boundary of the territory 

 that had been recently ceded by Spain, Audubon be- 

 came much excited over a possible appointment as 

 draughtsman and naturalist. He sat down at once and 

 wrote a personal letter to President Monroe, while hun- 

 dreds of imaginary birds of new and interesting kinds 

 seemed to come within the range of his gun; on the 31st 

 of March he w r as still pondering on the project, and al- 

 though it is not likely that his letter ever reached the eye 

 of the President, he did receive a recommendation from 

 Governor Robertson of Louisiana. It was with this 

 expedition in view that he sought an interview with John 

 Vanderlyn, 10 an eminent painter of historical subjects, 

 then working in New Orleans ; according to one version 

 Vanderlyn treated him as a mendicant, and ordered 

 him to lay down his portfolio in the lobby, but ended 

 by giving him a very complimentary note, in which he 

 praised his drawings without stint, particularly his 

 studies of birds. 



During the five months spent at New Orleans in 

 1821, Audubon attempted to support himself and his 

 companion by means of their artistic talents, while he 

 was pushing forward his ambitious design of figuring all 

 of America's birds and most characteristic plants. That 

 he received scant encouragement but many rebuffs is 

 not surprising. They did succeed in obtaining a few 

 pupils in drawing, and Audubon made a number of 

 rapid portraits, but after living for a time on Ursuline 

 Street, near the old Convent, and later shifting from 



10 



'Vanderlyn, like Audubon, had been a pupil of David at Paris; he 

 produced historical paintings of merit, as well as panoramas, then coming 

 into vogue; some of the latter were exhibited in the "Rotunda" which he 

 erected for that purpose in City Hall Park, New York, but this enter- 

 prise failed, and his building was seized by the city for debt. Vanderlyn 

 died in absolute want in 1852. See Samuel Isham, The History of Ameri- 

 can Painting (New York, 1915). 



