22 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



researches, I offered them to him, merely on condition that what 

 I had drawn, or might afterwards draw and send to him, should 

 be mentioned in liis work as coming from my pencil. I at the 

 same time ofiered to open a correspondence with him, which I 

 thought might prove beneficial to us both. He made no reply 

 to either proposal, and before many days had elapsed left 

 Louisville, on his way to New Orleans, little knowing how much 

 his talents were appreciated in our little town, at least by myself 

 and my friends. 



" Some time elapsed, during which I never heard of him, or 

 of his work. At length, having occasion to go to Philadelphia, 

 I, immediately after my arrival there, inquired for him, and 

 paid him a visit. He was then drawing a white-headed eagle. 

 He received me with civility, and took me to the exhibition 

 rooms of Eembrandt Peale, the artist, who had then portrayed 

 Napoleon crossing the Alps. Mr. Wilson spoke not of birds or 

 drawings. Feeling, as I was forced to do, that my company 

 was not agreeable, I parted from him ; and after that I never" 

 saw him again. But judge of my astonishment some time after, 

 when, on reading the thirty-ninth page of the ninth volume of 

 'American Ornithology,' I found in it the following para- 

 graph : — 



" ' March 23, 1810. — I bade adieu to Louisville, to which 

 place I had four letters of recommendation, and was taught to 

 expect much of everything there ; but neither received one act 

 of civility from those to whom I was recommended, one sub- 

 scriber, nor one new bird; though I delivered my letters, 

 ransacked the woods repeatedly, and visited all the characters 

 likely to subscribe. Science or literature has not one friend in 

 this place.' " 



The contrast between the chivalric conduct of Audubon and 

 Wilson's narrow spirit are here very marked ; but it has to be 

 borne in mind that, while Audubon was a polished and well- 

 educated French gentleman, Wilson was a poor weaver, educated 

 by the aid of his own industry, and suffering from the many 

 blights that had fallen upon his class in a land where the 

 amenities of civilization had not done much to soften the 

 manners of the working classes. Further, this and many other 

 incidents related by Audubon himself must be taken cum grano 



