52 



John James Audubon. 



of the would-be murderers. They were 

 captured and bound, and the following day 

 were severely punished after the so-called 

 Regulator Law of the day, their cabin 

 burned and their goods given to a friendly 

 Indian, who the night before had warned 

 Audubon of his danger. 



The autumn of 1812 was remarkable for 

 the number and severity of the earthquake 

 shocks which visited the Mississippi valley, 

 and Audubon's journal contains many ref- 

 erences to these convulsions 



During his residence at Hendersonville 

 Audubon was induced to enter a new busi- 

 ness at New Orleans, but this proved even 

 less successful than his previous venture. 

 Notwithstanding the fact that he had put 

 all his available means into the business of 

 Audubon & Co., the senior partner did not 

 devote himself to it, but remained in Ken- 

 tucky, and before long he received news of 

 the failure of the concern and the loss of 

 all his money. 



It was about this time that his father died. 

 Commodore Audubon left to his son an 

 estate in France and a sum of money 

 amounting to about $17,000, but the heir 

 was not destined to benefit by this legacy. 

 For some reason or other he failed to re- 

 ceive the legal notice of his father's death 

 for more than a year. He then went to 

 Philadelphia to obtain money, but was un- 

 able to do so. The cash had been deposited 

 with a merchant in Richmond, Va., who de- 

 clined to part with it until Audubon should 

 give satisfactory proofs that he was the heir, 

 but before this was done the merchant died 

 a bankrupt. No effort was made to obtain 

 possession of the estate in France, and years 

 afterward Audubon sent one of his sons 

 there for the purpose of legally transferring 

 it to his sister Rosa. 



From Philadelphia .Vudubon, now abso- 

 lutely without resources, returned to Hen- 

 dersonville. He managed to raise a little 

 money, and purchasing a small stock of 

 goods at Louisville, again went into business 



at Hendersonville. Here for the moment 

 he was moderately successful, so much so that 

 he seems to have been quite contented, and 

 refused a colonel's commission offered him 

 by a certain General Toledo, who was rais- 

 ing volunteers for a filibustering expedition 

 to South America. It was not long, how- 

 ever, before he was approached by a vision- 

 ary friend, who induced him to erect a 

 steam mill at Hendersonville. The project 

 seems to have been hopeless from the start, 

 and it was only kept alive by a process of 

 taking in at frequent intervals new partners, 

 whose means prolonged the life of the ven- 

 ture but did no more, and again Audubon 

 found himself literally penniless, having 

 given up all his possessions to his creditors. 



He now returned with his family to Louis- 

 ville, where for a while they remained with 

 a relative. Money must be had, however, 

 and now Audubon's skill with his pencil 

 stood him in good stead. He began to 

 draw portraits, and the fame of his skill 

 soon spread through the neighboring coun- 

 try, so that before long he had more work 

 than he could attend to. Money became 

 again abundant, his family were with him, 

 he had leisure in which to gratify his roving 

 tastes, and life was once more pleasant. 



Shortly after this, he accepted an invita- 

 tion to become curator of the museum at 

 Cincinnati, taking especial charge of the 

 department of ornithology. While occupy- 

 ing this post, he opened a school for drawing 

 in connection with it. In this he was suc- 

 cessful, but at length several of his pupils 

 set up opposition schools, and the competi- 

 tion proved too severe. About this time, 

 too, the work at the museum ended, and 

 Audubon was obliged once more to fall 

 back on his painting. 



Eight years passed with varying fortunes 

 in this pleasant Kentucky life. In his jour- 

 nal he tells us much of the sports and pas- 

 times of those early days, and in our next 

 chapter we shall give some extracts from 

 his writings on this topic. 



