AUDUBON 



21 



I 



On our return, in the early dusk of the evening, 1 was bid to 

 lead the way ; I fastened a white handkerchief to a stick, held it 

 up, and we all proceeded toward home as a flock of wild ducks 

 to their roosting-grounds. Many a mile had already been passed, 

 and, as gayly as ever, we were skating swiftly along when dark- 

 ness came on, and now our speed was increased. Uncon- 

 sciously I happened to draw so very near a large air-hole that 

 to check my headway became quite impossible, and down it I 

 went, and soon felt the power of a most chilling bath. My senses 

 must, for aught I know, have left me for a while ; be this as it 

 may, I must have glided with the stream some thirty or forty 

 yards, when, as God would have it, up I popped at another air- 

 hole, and here I did, in some way or another, manage to crawl 

 out. My companions, who in the gloom had seen my form so 

 suddenly disappear, escaped the danger, and were around me 

 when I emerged from the greatest peril I have ever encountered, 

 not excepting my escape from being murdered on the prairie, or 



by the hands of that wretch S B , of Henderson. I was 



helped to a shirt from one, a pair of dry breeches from another, 

 and completely dressed anew in a few minutes, if in motley and 

 ill-fitting garments ; our line of march was continued, with, how- 

 ever, much more circumspection. Let the reader, whoever he 

 may be, think as he may like on this singular and, in truth, most 

 extraordinary escape from death ; it is the truth, and as such I 

 have written it down as a wonderful act of Providence. 



Mr. Da Costa, my tutor, took it into his head that my affection 

 for your mother was rash and inconsiderate. He spoke triflingly 

 of her and of her parents, and one day said to me that for a man 

 of my rank and expectations to marry Lucy Bakewell was out of 

 the question. If I laughed at him or not I cannot tell you, but 

 of this I am certain, that my answers to his talks on this subject 

 so exasperated him that he immediately afterward curtailed my 

 usual income, made some arrangements to send me to India, and 

 wrote to my father accordingly. Understanding from many of 

 my friends that his plans were fixed, and finally hearing from 

 Philadelphia, whither Da Costa had gone, that he had taken my 

 passage from Philadelphia to Canton, I walked to Philadelphia, 



