14 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



spirits I have, has often greatly assisted me in some of the most 

 trying passages of my life. I know I am engaged in an arduous 

 undertaking; but if I live to complete it, I will offer to my 

 country a beautiful monument of the varied splendour of Ameri- 

 can nature, and of my devotion to American ornithology. 



John James Audubon. 



Ther., this day, at 2 p. m., 



78° Fahr. 



On the following day, December 8, 1831, Audubon 

 sent the following request to Dr. Harlan of Philadel- 

 phia: "I wish you also to send me — to Key West — , 20 

 more pounds of powdered arsenic from Friend Weth- 

 erell's shop,^'* and also a double barelled gun of usual 

 length, as good as you can procure for 30 dollars ; prob- 

 ably a second hand one may be procured; it must be 

 percussion and, if possible, hack action" Dr. Richard 

 Harlan, who often transmitted to Mrs. Audubon any 

 news which came direct from her husband, wrote to her 

 on December 10, 1831, as follows : ^^ 



I have just rec"^ a letter from Mr Aud — dated St. Augus- 

 tine Nov. 24*^'^ they enjoy health amidst their fatiguing avoca- 

 tions — has obtained another subscriber, living on S*- Simons 

 island named Th°- Butler King — to whom I am to send the 

 work as soon as the Copies exported arrive from London — he 

 has good expectations of adding some new birds to his list — 

 have you seen the Sonnet addressed to M'" Aud. in the "Wreath" 

 a London annual for 1832.'' — under the signature of J. E. R? 

 — our newspapers announce the arrival, departure & progress 

 of M"" Audubon, as if he was an Embassador — and so he is, 

 one of Natures 



"Then belonging to the four sons of Samuel WetherlU, who suc- 

 ceeded to the white lead and drugs industry after his death in 1829. 



" For the favor of reproducing this and another letter by Dr. Harlan 

 given in Chapter XXVII, as well as the sonnet referred to, which will be 

 found facing page 1 of this volume, I am indebted to Mr. Ruthven Deane. 



