18 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 
of perpetual conjecture, increased by the very 
circumstance which appeared to render it impro- 
bable it should ever be solved; for this singular 
being maintained a silence as unbroken as though 
he were dumb, through which he was commonly 
known as the “ Silent Hunter.” 
This appearance of sullen reserve distanced all, 
and those who otherwise would have compas- 
sionated his sorrows, or perhaps even willingly 
have shared his singular fortunes, now denounced 
him as a ruthless and reckless adventurer; very 
different would have been their judgment, could 
they have penetrated the enigma of his solitary _ 
life, and known how cruelly scarred had been a 
heart once quickened by the kindest and live- 
liest emotions. Misfortune, which at one dread 
stroke had deprived him of the realization of 
happiness on earth, seemed to have deadened 
every human hope and sympathy, and crushed 
every social instinct within his heart. 
The son of obscure emigrants from the Old 
World, his first unhappiness was to be left an 
orphan at an early age. The next, to be ap: 
prenticed to a farmer in North Carolina, a miser- 
able miser, who not only subjected the poor 
Loy to deprivations and the most arduous toils, 
but proved a traitor to the conditions of the in- 
dentures by which he was bound. These in- 
cluded the privilege of receiving a general schoo] 
