EPISODES 



303 



or of his work. At length, having occasion to go to Phil- 

 adelphia, I, immediately after my arrival there, inquired 

 for him, and paid him a visit. He was then drawing a 

 White-headed Eagle. He received me with civility, and 

 took me to the exhibition rooms of Rembrandt Peale, the 

 artist, who had then portrayed Napoleon crossing the 

 Alps. Mr. Wilson spoke not of birds nor drawings. Feel- 

 int:;, as I was forced to do, that my company was not agree- 

 able, I parted from him ; and after that I never saw him 

 again. But judge of my astonishment sometime after, 

 when, on reading the thirty-ninth page of the ninth volume 

 of " American Ornithology," I found in it the following 

 paragraph : — 



" March 23, 1810. I bade adieu to Louisville, to which 

 place I had four letters of recommendation, and was taught 

 to expect much of everything there ; but neither received 

 one act of civility from those to whom I was recommended, 

 one subscriber nor one new bird ; though I delivered my 

 letters, ransacked the woods repeatedly, and visited all the 

 characters likely to subscribe. Science or literature has 

 not one friend in this place." 



f HI 



i 



THE OHIO 



When my wife, my eldest son (then an infant), and myself 

 were returning from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, we found 

 it expedient, the waters being unusually low, to provide 

 ourselves with a skiff, to enable us to proceed to our abode 

 at Henderson. I purchased a large, commodious, and 

 light boat of that denomination. Wc procured a mat- 

 tress, and our friends furnished us with ready prepared 

 viands. We had two stout negro rowers, and in this 

 trim we left the village of Shippingport, in expectation 

 of reaching the place of our destination in a very few 

 days. 



