268 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
This letter was sent to Henderson, Kentucky, more 
than a year after the naturalist had finally left that 
state; at the moment it was written he was making his 
way down the Ohio River to New Orleans in a flatboat, 
“the poorest man aboard,” as he thought at the time. 
Writing in his journal on December 26, 1820, when 
they had touched at Natchez, Audubon said that on 
that day he had received letters from his wife, who was 
then at Cincinnati, written on November 7 and 14, and 
that the last “contained one from my brother, G. Loyen 
Dupuigaudeau, dated July 24, 1820.” If the month in 
this instance was misnamed, this might have been the 
following letter, which was written at Couéron on the 
twenty-fourth of June, 1820, and sent to Henderson 
like the last. 
Two years have passed without our having any news of 
you. What a long lapse of time, and in what anxiety are we 
plunged! In God’s name give us some news about yourself, if 
it be but a word to set us at rest in regard to your condition. 
I should not know how to persuade myself that you were not 
on friendly terms with me, since I have given you no cause 
[for grievance]; if it is so, be generous enough to relieve me 
from this anxiety. The business matters of Mr. Audubon are 
at last concluded, and I await only the return of the papers 
from Cayes to set them in order with justice [to all].1? 
Profiting by an opportunity for New York, I have only 
time to refer to my letters of 15 September, 30 October, 19 
December, 1818, 1st February, 15 April, 15 May, 3d August, 
1819, in all their contents. 
Madam Audubon is coming to live with us; she found her- 
self isolated at “La Gerbetiére,” and was very dull there; I 
wish that she may be contented here. She does not cease to 
This reference is evidently to the litigation over Lieutenant Audu- 
bon’s will and the final disposition of his estate. 
