AUDUBON 37 



of great talent. My salary was large, and I at once sent for your 

 mother to come to me, and bring you. Your dearly beloved 

 sister Rosa died shortly afterward. I now established a large 

 drawing-school at Cincinnati, to which I attended thrice per week, 

 and at good prices. 



The expedition of Major Long ^ passed through the city soon 

 after, and well do I recollect how he, Messrs. T. Peale,^ Thomas 

 Say,'' and others stared at my drawings of birds at that time. 



So industrious were Mr. Best and I that in about six months we 

 had augmented, arranged, and finished all we could do for the 

 museum. I returned to my portraits, and made a great number 

 of them, without which we must have once more been on the 

 starving list, as Mr. Best and I found, sadly too late, that the 

 members of the College museum were splendid promisers and 

 very bad paymasters. 



In October of 1820 I left your mother and yourselves at Cin- 

 cinnati, and went to New Orleans on board a flat-boat commanded 

 and owned by a Mr. Haromack. From this date my journals 

 are kept with fair regularity, and if you read them you will easily 

 find all that followed afterward. 



In glancing over these pages, I see that in my hurried and 

 broken manner of laying before you this very imperfect (but per- 

 fectly correct) account of my early life I have omitted to tell you 

 that, before the birth of your sister Rosa, a daughter was born at 

 Henderson, who was called, of course, Lucy. Alas ! the poor, 

 dear little one was unkindly born, she was always ill and suffering ; 

 two years did your kind and unwearied mother nurse her with all 

 imaginable care, but notwithstanding this loving devotion she 

 died, in the arms which had held her so long, and so tenderly. 



^ Stephen Harriman Long, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, who was 

 then on his way to explore the region of the upper Mississippi and Minne- 

 sota Rivers. 



''■ Titian R. Peale, afterward naturalist of the U. S. Exploring Expedi- 

 tion, under Commodore Wilkes. Later in life he was for many years an 

 examiner in the Patent Office at Washington, and died at a very advanced 

 age. He was a member of the eminent Peale family of artists, one of 

 whom established Peale's Museum in Philadelphia. — E. C. 



* The distinguished naturalist of that name. — E. C. 



