AUDUBON 



31 





I 



Clark, the brother of General William Clark, the first white man 

 who ever crossed the Rocky Mountains. I had engaged to go 

 with him, but was, as I have said, unfortunately prevented. To 

 return to our journey. When we reached Cash Creek we were 

 bound by ice for a few weeks ; we then attempted to ascend the 

 Mississippi, but were again stopped in the great bend called 

 Tawapatee Bottom, where we again planted our camp till a thaw 

 broke the ice.^ In less than six weeks, however, we reached the 

 village of St. Genevieve. I found at once it was not the place 

 for me ; its population was then composed of low French Cana- 

 dians, uneducated and uncouth, and the ever-longing wish to be 

 with my beloved wife and children drew my thoughts to Hender- 

 son, to which I decided to return almost immediately. Scarcely 

 any communication existed between the two places, and I felt cut 

 off from all dearest to me. Rozier, on the contrary, liked it ; he 

 found plenty of French with whom to converse. I proposed 

 selling out to him, a bargain was made, he paid me a certain 

 amount in cash, and gave me bills for the residue. This accom- 

 plished, I purchased a beauty of a horse, for which I paid dear 

 enough, and bid Rozier farewell. On my return trip to Hender- 

 son I was obliged to stop at a humble cabin, where I so nearly 

 ran the chance of losing my life, at the hands of a woman and 

 her two desperate sons, that I have thought fit since to introduce 

 this passage in a sketch called "The Prairie," which is to be 

 found in the first volume of my " Ornithological Biography." 



Winter was just bursting into spring when I left the land of lead 

 mines. Nature leaped with joy, as it were, at her own new-born 

 marvels, the prairies began to be dotted with beauteous flowers, 

 abounded with deer, and my own heart was filled with happiness 

 at the sights before me. I must not forget to tell you that I 

 crossed those prairies on foot at another time, for the purpose of 

 collecting the money due to me from Rozier, and that I walked 

 one hundred and sixty-five miles in a little over three days, much 

 of the time nearly ankle deep in mud and water, from which I suf- 

 fered much afterward by swollen feet. I reached Henderson in 

 early March, and a few weeks later the lower portions of Kentucky 



* Episode " Breaking of the Ice." 



