312 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
Pacific Coast, to survey the boundary of the territory 
that had been recently ceded by Spain, Audubon be- 
came much excited over a possible appointment as 
draughtsman and naturalist. He sat down at once and 
wrote a personal letter to President Monroe, while hun- 
dreds of imaginary birds of new and interesting kinds 
seemed to come within the range of his gun; on the 31st 
of March he was still pondering on the project, and al- 
though it is not likely that his letter ever reached the eye 
of the President, he did receive a recommendation from 
Governor Robertson of Louisiana. It was with this 
expedition in view that he sought an interview with John 
Vanderlyn,” an eminent painter of historical subjects, 
then working in New Orleans; according to one version 
Vanderlyn treated him as a mendicant, and ordered 
him to lay down his portfolio in the lobby, but ended 
by giving him a very complimentary note, in which he 
praised his drawings without stint, particularly his 
studies of birds. 
During the five months spent at New Orleans in 
1821, Audubon attempted to support himself and his 
companion by means of their artistic talents, while he 
was pushing forward his ambitious design of figuring all 
of America’s birds and most characteristic plants. That 
he received scant encouragement but many rebuffs is 
not surprising. They did succeed in obtaining a few 
pupils in drawing, and Audubon made a number of 
rapid portraits, but after living for a time on Ursuline 
Street, near the old Gonvent, and later shifting from 
* Vanderlyn, like Audubon, had been a pupil of David at Paris; he 
produced historical paintings of merit, as well as panoramas, then coming 
into vogue; some of the latter were exhibited in the “Rotunda” which he 
erected for that purpose in City Hall Park, New York, but this enter- 
prise failed, and his building was seized by the city for debt. Vanderlyn 
died in absolute want in 1852. See Samuel Isham, The History of Ameri- 
can Painting (New York, 1915). 
