196 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
Louisville at this time was a small trading and agri- 
cultural center of barely a thousand people.? Though 
the early promises of business there were not fulfilled, 
Audubon and his wife at once entered upon a happy 
period, for they made many friends in a new country 
settled by whole-hearted, well-to-do planters; the men 
were fond of good horses and of hunting, and the nat- 
uralist, who was also a merchant, was welcomed among 
them as a kindred spirit. But, said Audubon, “birds 
were birds then as now, and my thoughts were ever and 
anon turning towards them as the objects of my greatest 
delight. I shot, I drew, I looked on nature only; my 
days were happy beyond human conception, and beyond 
that I really cared not. ... I seldom passed a day 
without drawing a bird, or noting something respecting 
its habits, Rozier meantime attending the counter.” 
To revert again to the business affairs of the Audu- 
bon-Rozier firm at Louisville, an interesting record has 
been preserved in a letter *® written by Thomas Bake- 
well, a former fellow-clerk of the naturalist in the senior 
Bakewell’s counting-house in New York; this was in- 
cluded with the statement of account, referred to above. 
Thomas Bakewell to Audubon & Rozier 
[At bottom of account sheet] New Yorx, Decemr. 13th, 1808 
Mess®8, J. Aupuzon & F. Rozier 
Louisville 
GENT, 
I have now the pleasure to hand you your account current 
with my Father’s Estate according to your desire as expressed 
°In 1800 the population of Louisville was 600, and in 1810 it had 
risen to 1,350; see Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841 (Cincinnati, 1841). 
* For this and the letter of Thomas Bakewell’s uncle, William Bake- 
well, which follows later, I am indebted to Mr. Tom J. Rozier; see Note, 
Vol. I, p. 133, and for accompanying “Account Current” of Audubon & 
Rozier, Appendix I, Document No. 11. 
