CHAPTER XX 
AUDUBON’S ENEID, 1819-1824: WANDERINGS THROUGH 
THE WEST AND SOUTH 
Pivotal period in Audubon’s career—His spur and balance-wheel—Resort 
to portraiture—Taxidermist in the Western Museum—Settles in Cin- 
cinnati—History of his relations with Dr. Drake—Decides to make his 
avocation his business—Journey down the Ohio and Mississippi with 
Mason and Cummings—Experiences of travel without a cent of capital— 
Life in New Orleans—Vanderlyn’s recommendations—Original draw- 
ings—Chance meeting with Mrs. Pirrie, and engagement as tutor at 
“Oakley”—Enchantments of West Feliciana—“My lovely Miss Pirrie’— 
The jealous doctor—Famous drawing of the rattlesnake—Leaves St. 
Francisville and is adrift again in New Orleans—Obtains pupils in 
drawing and is joined by his family—Impoverished, moves to Natchez, 
and Mrs. Audubon becomes a governess—Injuries to his drawings— 
The labors of years destroyed by rats—Teaching in Tennessee—Parting 
with Mason—First lessons in oils—Mrs: Audubon’s school at “Beech- 
woods”—Painting tour fails—Stricken at Natchez—At the Percys’ 
plantation—Walk to Louisville—Settles at Shippingport. 
‘Audubon’s failure at Henderson was the crucial 
turning point in his career. For the five years that 
immediately followed he led a peripatetic existence in 
the southern and western states, seldom tarrying long 
at one point, often leaving his family for months at a 
time, living from hand to mouth, but ever bent on per- 
fecting those products of his hand and brain, his life 
studies of American birds and plants. 
At this crisis Audubon could have accomplished 
nothing but for the intelligent devotion of his capable 
wife. Generous, emotional, inclined to be self-indul- 
gent, Audubon needed both the example and the spur 
of a strong character such as his wife possessed, and at 
this time Lucy Audubon furnished both the motive 
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