EXPERIMENTS IN TRADE 237 
them was, and for a considerable time remained, one 
vast canebrake. All the commodities known to the pio- 
neer store were scarce, but the people of Henderson 
were friendly, and the new settlers had been provident in 
bringing with them a goodly supply of flour and “bacon 
hams.” Moreover, the Ohio, which was half a mile wide 
at that point, was well stocked with fish, and the woods 
and canebrakes were alive with birds, not to speak of 
larger and more important game. Not many years be- 
fore, wild turkeys had been so plentiful that they were 
not sold but were given away, while a large buck deer 
could be bought in the season for fifty cents. 
During their stay at Henderson, Rozier was in his 
habitual place behind the counter and attended to what 
little business was done, while Audubon with a Ken- 
tucky lad named John Pope, who was nominally a 
clerk, roamed the country in eager pursuit of rare birds, 
and with rod and gun bountifully supplied the table. 
Audubon’s first abode in the town was, as he said, “a 
log-cabin, not a log-house,” in which the richest piece of 
furniture was their child’s cradle. He soon began to 
cultivate a garden, but his experience in horticulture 
must have been limited, for he naively remarks that 
the rankness of the soil kept the seeds they planted 
“far beneath the tall weeds which sprang up the first 
year.” 
Financial distress and hard times were already being 
felt in the Blue Grass State, and these conditions were 
not destined soon to improve. After experimenting for 
six months, or more, at Henderson, our two “rolling 
stones” determined to push still farther west and try 
their luck at a more promising point. They had hoped 
to reach St. Louis but finally went instead to Ste. Gen- 
evieve, then a small French settlement in Upper Louis- 
