lOO 



John James Audubon. 



nation, and hearing that an expedition was 

 to leave Natchitoches next year to survey 

 the boundary line, he determined to try to 

 obtain permission to accompany it as nat- 

 uralist and draughtsman. He therefore 

 wrote to Mr. Monroe, who was then Presi- 

 dent, asking for this appointment, but 

 received no reply. Audubon remained 

 in New Orleans until June of 1821, 

 and his life there was one of ups and 

 downs. Sometimes he was penniless, 

 and at others had enough for his wants. 

 He started to return to his family in Ken- 

 tucky on the 1 6th of June, but while on 

 his way up the river he accepted the posi- 

 tion of in.structor in drawing to the daugh- 

 ters of a Mr. Perrie, who owned a planta- 

 tion at Bayou Sara, in Louisiana. Here 

 his duties were very light, and a consider- 

 able portion of his time was occupied in 

 roaming the woods looking out for new 

 birds. The time passed pleasantly. Just 

 about a year after his departure from Cin- 

 cinnati, he left Bayou Sara for New Or- 

 leans. Here he rented a house and sent 

 to Kentucky for his family. In an entry 

 in his journal October 25, he gives a state- 

 ment of what he has accomplished during 

 the year. He says : " Since I left Cincin- 

 nati, October 12, 1820, I have finished 

 sixty-two drawings of birds and plants, 

 three quadrupeds, two snakes, fifty por- 

 traits of all sorts, and have subsisted by 

 my humble talents, not having a dollar 

 when I started. I sent a draft to my wife, 

 and began life in New Orleans with forty- 

 two dollars, health, and much anxiety to 

 pursue my plan of collecting all the birds 

 of America." 



In December Mrs. Audubon and her 

 children reached New Orleans, and the re- 

 union of the family after fourteen months 

 of separation was a great delight to all of 

 them. But now once more money troubles 

 began to oppress the naturalist, and before 

 long his affairs became so desperate that 

 Mrs. Audubon took pupils to help matters 



along. In March her husband determined 

 to return to Natchez, where he believed his 

 prospects for obtaining work would be bet- 

 ter. He reached this city March 24, 1822, 

 and after some discouragements and de- 

 lays, obtained an appointment as drawing 

 master in a so called college at Washing- 

 ton, nine miles from Natchez. He sent 

 for his sons and put them to school here. 

 But although he had work, he W'as dissatis- 

 fied, for his employment left him little time 

 to work at his birds. On the whole, his time 

 at Natchez was so far well spent that he was 

 earning some money, and after a while Mrs. 

 Audubon joined him there, and for a short 

 time was governess in a clergyman's fam- 

 ily; but at length Audubon's desire to pro- 

 ceed with his work could no longer be 

 restrained, and his wife's faith in him in- 

 duced her to propose that she should 

 remain in Mississippi as governess in the 

 Percy family at Bayou Sara, while her hus- 

 band should go to Europe and perfect him- 

 self in painting in oil colors. This course 

 was finally determined on, and in October, 

 1823, Audubon left New Orleans for Ken- 

 tucky, taking with him his son Victor, 

 a boy not yet fourteen years old. 



This journey was notable as terminating 

 in a walk of about two hundred and fifty 

 miles, made, not over roads, but through 

 forests, canebrakes and along stony river 

 beds, and was accomplished in ten days. 

 From the village of Trinity, where, on ac- 

 count of low water, the steamboat was forced 

 to stop, four of the passengers started to 

 walk to Louisville; but before the journey 

 had been completed Audubon and his young 

 son had left their companions far behind, 

 and were the first to reach Louisville. Here 

 Audubon succeeded in getting his son into 

 the counting house of a friend, and then en- 

 gaged to paint the interior of a steamboat. 

 That autumn and the winter of 1823-4 was 

 spent in Kentucky painting to accumulate 

 funds for his travels, and in April, 1824 

 Audubon found himself in Philadelphia. 



