JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 775 



and much anxiety to pursue his plan of collecting all the birds in America." 

 He speaks with childish glee of the delight a new suit of clothes gave him. 

 " My long flowing hair and loose yellow nankeen dress and the unfortunate 

 cut of my features attracted much attention, and made me desire to be 

 dressed like other people." Now begins, perhaps, the hardest portion of 

 Audubon's life. He could get no work, no pupils, and between December 8, 

 1 82 1, when his wife arrived at New Orleans, to March 7, 1822, he wrote no 

 journal, because he could not buy a book to write in. The one obtained at 

 last is of thin, poor paper, and the records entered in its pages are in keeping 

 with his financial troubles. His health began to suffer from depression ; he 

 resolved to return to Natchez, and obtained his passage by the steamer in 

 return for a crayon portrait of the captain and his wife. Mrs. Audubon was 

 left behind, as she had undertaken the charge of the children of a Mr. 

 Brand. At Natchez he got an appointment to teach drawing at Wellington 

 College, but complained that the work interfered with his ornithological 

 pursuits ; and he was full of despair, fearing that his hopes of becoming 

 known to Europe as a naturalist were destined to be forever blasted. Nor 

 were his spirits raised by the remarks of an Englishman who examined his 

 drawings, and, after advising him to take them to England, added that he 

 would have to spend years in making himself known. In December a 

 portrait-painter named Stein arrived in Natchez, and from him Audubon 

 took his first lesson in oil-painting. His wife urged him to go to Europe 

 and perfect himself in this branch of art, and with this view she entered into 

 an engagement to educate the children of a Mrs. Percy, of Bayou Sara, 

 along with her own and a limited number of pupils. On her departure for 

 this sphere of employment, Audubon and Stein resolved to start out as 

 wandering artists, painting portraits for a livelihood. " I had finally deter- 

 mined to break through all bonds and pursue my ornithological pursuits. 

 My best friends solemnly regarded me as a madman, and my wife and family 

 alone gave me encouragement. My wife determined that my genius should 

 prevail, and that my final success as an ornithologist should be triumphant." 

 So far Audubon's career had been marked by few gleams of prosperity, 

 but his desperate venture of coming East to obtain help to complete his 

 work proved to be the stepping-stone of fame. He reached Philadelphia 

 April 5, 1824, and was welcomed by the artists there, receiving great kind- 

 ness from Mr. Sully. An old friend, Dr. Mease, introduced him to Charles 

 Bonaparte, who was engaged on his own book of " American Birds." Bona- 

 parte examined his drawings, and praised them highly. He introduced him 

 to Peale, the artist to the Academy of Arts, and pronounced his birds superb 



