The Audubon Magazine 



Vol. I. 



APRIL, 1887. 



No. 3. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



III. 



AUDUBON'S first experience of really 

 wild life came soon after his first 

 meeting with Wilson. The business in 

 which he was engaged in Louisville was 

 not as successful as it was thought it ought 

 to be, and arrangements were made for 

 transferring it to Hendersonville, one hun- 

 dred and twenty miles down the Ohio River. 

 This place was then a little frontier settle- 

 ment, and with most limited accommoda- 

 tions, and before starting on his new venture 

 Audubon took his wife and son back to her 

 father's house at Flatland Ford, in Pennsyl- 

 vania, where they remained for a year. 



Hendersonville, however, was too small- 

 a place for a successful store, and it was 

 determined after a while to make another 

 change, moving to St. Genevieve, on the 

 Mississippi. During this journey their boat 

 was frozen in, and they were obliged to re- 

 main for some time camped upon the river 

 bank, waiting for the ice to break up. Here 

 Audubon was brought into close contact 

 with bands of wandering Shawnee and 

 Osage Indians, who were gathering mast 

 and hunting, and he beguiled the time by 

 joining them in their expeditions after game, 

 and thus learned many things about the 

 ways of the forest. The time passed pleas- 

 antly enough to him, though to his partner, 

 Rosier, the delay was exceedingly irksome. 

 Taking advantage of each thaw, they worked 

 their way slowly along until they came with- 



in sight of Cape Girardeau, when cold wea- 

 ther came on again and they were finally 

 frozen in for the winter. The account of 

 this journey given by Audubon is most 

 graphic. Of this last delay he says: "We 

 were now indeed in winter quarters, and we 

 made the best of it. The Indians made 

 baskets of cane, Mr. Rope played on the 

 violin, I accompanied with the flute, the 

 men danced to the tunes, and the squaws 

 looked on and laughed, and the hunters 

 smoked their pipes with such serenity as 

 only Indians can, and I never regretted one 

 day spent there." By and by, however, the 

 ice broke up, and the arduous labor of 

 working the boat up the river was resumed. 

 A short stop was made at Cape Girardeau, 

 and then pushing on to St. Genevieve, a 

 market was found for their goods. 



But Audubon soon became restless again, 

 and longed to be back at Hendersonville 

 where his wife now was, in the family of 

 Dr. Rankin, who lived near that place. He 

 therefore sold his interest to Rosier, pur- 

 chased a horse and started off across the 

 country for home. This trip was one of 

 some adventure, for at a cabin where Audu- 

 bon spent the night, his carelessness in ex- 

 posing his watch aroused the cupidity of 

 his hostess, who with her two sons plotted 

 his death. The timely arrival of two travel- 

 ers at the door prevented a struggle, which 

 would no doubt have resulted in the death 



