AUDUBON 49 



sources, and with one less gifted her unpractical husband 

 would have fared far worse than he did. To quote again : 

 " Our living here [Cincinnati] is extremely moderate ; 

 the markets are well supplied and cheap, beef only two 

 and a half cents a pound, and I am able to provide a good 

 deal myself; Partridges are frequently in the streets, and 

 I can shoot Wild Turkeys within a mile or so ; Squirrels 

 and Woodcock are very abundant in the season, and fish 

 always easily caught." 



Even with these advantages, Audubon, receiving no 

 money ^ from Dr. Drake, president of the Museum, de- 

 cided on going to New Orleans. He had now a great 

 number of drawings and the idea of publishing these had 

 suggested itself both to him and his wife. To perfect 

 his collection he planned going through many of the 

 Southern States., then pushing farther west, and thence 

 returning to Cincinnati. On Oct. 12, 1820, he left Cin- 

 cinnati with Captain Samuel Cummings for New Orleans, 

 but with a long pause at Natchez, did not reach that city 

 before mid-winter, where he remained with varying suc- 

 cess until the summer of 1821, when he took a position 

 as tutor in the family of Mrs. Charles Percy of Bayou 

 Sara. Here, in the beloved Louisiana whose praises he 

 never wearied of singing, whose magnolia woods were 

 more to him than palaces, whose swamps were store- 

 houses of treasures, he stayed till autumn, when, all fear 

 of yellow fever being over, he sent for his wife and sons. 

 Many new drawings had been made in this year of separa- 

 tion from them, and these were by far the greater part of 

 the- furniture in the little house in Dauphine St., to which 

 he took his family on their arrival in December, 1821. 



The former life of drawing portraits, giving lessons, 

 painting birds, and wandering through the country, began 

 again, though there was less of this last, Audubon realizing 



1 Mrs. Audubon afterwards received four hundred dollars, of the twelve 

 hundred dollars due ; the remainder was never paid. 

 VOL. I. — 4 



