206 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
nearing Louisville at nightfall he became alarmed lest 
he should be drawn into the suction of the Falls, as no 
lights could be seen on the banks: cautiously coasting 
along the shore, where he encountered many logs and 
sawyers, at last he entered the Creek and secured his 
skiff to a Kentucky boat; then, “loading myself with my 
baggage,” he wrote, “I groped my way through a swamp 
up to the town.”* When Wilson had seen the Falls by 
daylight, he felt that his fears of the night before had 
been groundless, and declared that he should have no 
hesitation in navigating them single-handed. 
It will be interesting to follow Wilson’s journey a 
little further, before returning to the Louisville visit. 
After passing a few days in Audubon’s town, he struck 
out into the heart of Kentucky, calling at Shelbyville, 
Frankfort and Lexington, and eventually reaching 
Nashville, Tennessee. Not far from the latter place he 
met a landlord of admirable discrimination, Isaac Wal- 
ton by name, who showed himself worthy of his illustri- 
ous ancestor by declaring that Wilson was evidently 
traveling for the good of the world, and added: “I 
cannot, and will not charge you anything. Whenever 
you come this way, call and stay with me; you shall be 
welcome.” 
At Nashville Wilson wrote to Miss Sarah Miller, the 
lady to whom he was engaged but whom he did not live 
to marry: “Nine hundred miles distant from you sits 
Wilson, the hunter of birds’ nests and sparrows, just 
preparing to enter on a wilderness of 780 miles—most 
of it in the territory of Indians—alone but in good spir- 
its, and expecting to have every pocket crammed with 
skins of new and extraordinary birds before he reach 
* Letter to Alexander Lawson, dated at Lexington, April 4, 1810; see 
Grosart, Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson, vol. i, p. 189. 
