36 



AUDUBON 



i 



»'!^!t::!:!^l 



abundant State of Kentucky? Was I to repine because I had 

 acted like an honest man? Was I inclined to cut my throat in 

 foolish despair ? No ! ! I had talents, and to them I instantly 

 resorted. 



To be a good draughtsman in those days was to me a blessing ; 

 to any other man, be it a thousand years hence, it will be a bless- 

 ing also. I at once undertook to take portraits of the human 

 " head divine," in black chalk, and, thanks to my master, David, 

 succeeded admirably. I commenced at exceedingly low prices, 

 but raised these prices as I became more known in this capacity. 

 Your mother and yourselves were sent up from Henderson to our 

 friend Isham Talbot, then Senator for Kentucky ; this was done 

 without a cent of expense to me, and I can never be grateful 

 enough for his kind generosity. 



In the course of a few weeks I had as much work to do as I 

 could possibly wish, so much that I was able to rent a house in 

 a retired part of Louisville. I was sent for four miles in the 

 country, to take likenesses of persons on their death-beds, and so 

 high did my reputation suddenly rise, as the best delineator of 

 heads in that vicinity, that a clergyman residing at Louisville (I 

 would give much now to recall and write down his name) had 

 his dead child disinterred, to procure a fac-simile of his face, 

 which, by the way, I gave to the parents as if still alive, to their 

 intense satisfaction. 



My drawings of birds were not neglected meantime ; in this 

 particular there seemed to hover round me almost a mania, and I 

 would even give up doing a head, the profits of which would have 

 supplied our wants for a week or more, to represent a little citizen 

 of the feathered tribe. Nay, my dear sons, I thought that I now 

 drew birds far better than I had ever done before misfortune in- 

 tensified, or at least developed, my abilities. I received an in- 

 vitation to go to Cincinnati,^ a flourishing place, and which you 

 now well know to be a thriving town in the State of Ohio. I was 

 presented to the president of the Cincinnati College, Dr. Drake, 

 and immediately formed an engagement to stuff birds for the 

 museum there, in concert with Mr. Robert Best, an Englishman 



1 1819. 



