258 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
had been surrendered to another claimant. ‘This was 
probably in May, 1819, for in his journal of the follow- 
ing year, under date of November 23, when he was again 
moving down the rivers but in more leisurely fashion, 
he speaks of two large eagle’s nests, one of which he 
remembered having seen as he “went to New Orleans 
eighteen months” before. 
Through the researches of a later historian I am now 
able to give a more exact account of this affair. The 
purchasers of the steamboat were William R. Bowen, 
Samuel Adams Bowen, Robert Speed, Edmund 
Townes, Obediah Smith, George Brent and Bennett 
Marshall, who immediately sued Audubon in the sum of 
$10,000, on the plea that he had maliciously taken out 
an attachment upon the vessel in New Orleans, where it 
had been detained. They represented to the judge of 
the circuit court, Henry P. Broadnax, that Audubon 
was about to leave Kentucky, and a warrant was issued 
to arrest him; he was taken into custody, said the narra- 
tor whom I am following, “but executed a bail bond in 
the sum of $10,000 with Fayette Posey as surety, and 
was released.” Convinced that a trial at Henderson 
would lead only to a defeat of justice, Audubon now 
served notice that he would apply for a change of venue 
to another county. “That notice together with the other 
papers in the action, is among the records of the Daviess 
circuit court, at Owensboro, Kentucky. It was written 
and signed by Audubon. Application for a change of 
venue was made at Hardinsburg and the case was trans- 
ferred to the Daviess circuit court.” When the case was 
called, the plaintiffs asked for a continuance, and it was 
granted them, but when the case was called again at the 
next term of court, the plaintiffs failed to appear, and 
the action was finally dismissed. 
