II. 
AUDUBON was now eager to marry, 
but Mr. Bakewell advised him first to 
study the mercantile business. This 
he accordingly set out to do by enter- 
ing as a clerk the commercial house of 
Benjamin Bakewell in New York, while 
his friend Rozier entered a French house 
in Philadelphia. 
But Audubon was not cut out for busi- 
ness; his first venture was in indigo, and 
cost him several hundred pounds. Ro- 
zier succeeded no better ; his first specu- 
lation was a cargo of hams shipped to 
the West Indies which did not return 
one fifth of the cost. Audubon’s want 
of business habits is shown by the state- 
ment that at this time he one day posted 
a letter containing eight thousand dollars 
without sealing it. His heart was in the 
fields and woods with the birds. His 
room was filled with drying bird skins, 
the odour from which, it is said, became 
