ARRIVAL AT CHARLESTON. 313 



for Norfolk, went aboard the Potomac, which was there ready 

 to sail for Eichmond, where he arrived at the above date. 

 There he called on Governor Floyd, who promised to try to 

 induce the State of Virginia to subscribe for his "Birds of 

 America." 



" October 16. We left Eichmond this morning in a stage well 

 crammed with Italian musicians and southern merchants, arrived 

 at Petersburg at a late hour, dined, and were again crammed in 

 a car drawn by a locomotive, which dragged us twelve miles an 

 hour, and sent out sparks of fire enough to keep us constantly busy 

 in extinguishing them on our clothes. At Blakely we were again 

 crammed into a stage, and dragged about two miles an hour. 

 We crossed the Eoanoke Eiver by torchlight in a flat boat, 

 passed through Halifax, Ealeigh, Fayetteville, and Columbia, 

 where we spent the night. Here I met Dr. G-ildes, at whose 

 house we passed the evening, and who assisted me greatly ; at 

 his house I met President Thomas Cooper, who assured me he 

 had seen a rattlesnake climb a fine rail fence on his land. I 

 received from the treasury of the State four hundred and twenty 

 dollars on account of its subscription for one copy of the ' Birds 

 of America.' " 



Dreading the railway, he hired a carriage for forty dollars 

 to proceed to Charleston, where he arrived in four days, and 

 found his son John, and was kindly received, with his wife, by 

 the Eev. John Backman. 



" Charleston, S. C, Octoher 24, 1833. Our time at Charleston 

 has been altogether pleasant. The hospitality of our friends 

 cannot be described, and now that we are likely to be connected 

 by family ties I shall* say no more on this head." John and 

 Victor Audubon were subsequently married to daughters of 

 this gentleman. 



" My time was well employed ; I hunted for new birds or 

 searched for more knowledge of old. I drew ; I wrote many 

 long pages. I obtained a few new subscribers, and made some 

 collections on account of my work. 



" My proposed voyage to Florida, which was proposed for the 

 3rd of November, was abandoned on account of the removal of 

 my good friend Captain Eobert Day from his former station to 

 New York, and I did not like to launch on the Florida reefs in 



