170 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



employed. He hunted the woods for birds and animals, and 

 brought them home alive or freshly killed, to draw from. There 

 are several exquisite unfinished deer-heads, in his great portfolio 

 of unfinished drawings, which were begun at that time. He 

 drew also, at this time, the picture of the "Black Vulture 

 Attacking the Herd of Deer," several large hawks, and some 

 beautiful squirrels. Having added considerably to his collection, 

 he began again to think of returning to England, to increase the 

 drawings already in the process of publication there. 



" Our plaits," he writes, addressing his sons, " were soon 

 arranged. Your mother collected the moneys due her, and 

 on the first of January, eighteen hundred and thirty we started 

 for New Orleans, taking with us the only three servants yet 

 belonging to us, namely, Cecilia, and her two sons, Eeuben 

 and Lewis. We stayed a few days at our friend Mr. Brand's, 

 with whom we left our servants, and on the seventh of January 

 took passage in the splendid steamer Philadelphia for Louis- 

 ville, paying sixty dollars fare. We were fourteen days getting 

 to Louisville, having had some trouble with the engine. I 

 passed my time there at Mr. Berthond's and your uncle 

 W. Bakewell's, and amused myself hunting and stuffing birds 

 until the seventh of March, when we took a steamer for 

 Cincinnati, and thence to Wheeling, and so on to Washington 

 in the mail-coach. Congress was in session, and I exhibited 

 my drawings to the House of Eepresentdtives, and received 

 their subscription as a body. I saw the President, Andrew 

 Jackson, who received me with great kindness, as he did your 

 mother also afterwards. I became acquainted with the Hon. 

 Edward Everett, Baron Krudener, and other distinguished 

 persons, and we left for Baltimore. There my drawings were 

 exhibited, and I obtained three subscribers, and left for Phila- 

 delphia, where we remained one week. I sa^y my friends 

 Harlan, Mr. Murtrie, and Sully, and went to New York, from 

 whence we sailed in the packet-ship Pacific, Captain K. Oroker, 

 for England. 



"After a passage of twenty-five days, on which nothing 

 happened worthy of record, we had crossed the Atlantic and 

 arrived safely in Liverpool. 



" In England everything had gone well, and although my 



