SETTLEMENT IN THE WEST 193 
their account current with the Bakewell house,’ it is evi- 
dent that they opened a retail shop in Louisville at 
once, for on September 29 they were charged with $57 
for an order of powder horns and shotbags. In the 
same record there is a more interesting entry under date 
of December 31, 1807: “advanced per [sailing packet ] 
Jane, for indigo and expences . . . $1,516.43,” ordered 
evidently through Mr. Bakewell, presumably for export 
to France. This incident Audubon must have had in 
mind when in after life he wrote: “The mercantile busi- 
ness did not suit me. The very first venture which I 
undertook was in indigo; it cost me several hundred 
pounds, the whole of which was lost.” It may be re- 
called that in his letter of April 24 of this year, Audubon 
wrote Francois Rozier* that the Bakewell house had 
sent him a consignment of indigo by the same ship, 
Captain Sammis, and hoped for its favorable sale in 
France. No doubt the venture succeeded so well that 
the young traders were induced to repeat the experi- 
ment. As it happened, however, on December 22, a 
week before this entry for the indigo was made, the 
famous Embargo Act of President Jefferson had taken 
effect, with the result of cutting off all exports to Eng- 
land and France and at the same time of paralyzing 
American trade. The Bakewell house, as we have al- 
ready noticed, like so many others, immediately went 
down, and the partners found that their tobacco and 
other western produce found so little sale in New York 
that by April 7, 1808, they were obliged to call for an 
extension of their notes. 
Notwithstanding the gloomy outlook for trade, 
Audubon had no fears for the future. As early as 
°See Appendix I, Document No. 11. 
7™See Chapter XI, page 158. 
