ALEXANDER WILSON. \[ x 



continued my route to this place, passing and calling at great num- 

 bers of small towns in the way. 



" The legislature is at present in session. The newspapers 

 have to-day taken notice of my book and inserted my advertisement. 

 I shall call on the principal people — employ an agent among some 

 of the booksellers in Albany — and return home by New York." 



Wilson remained at home only for a few days, and though now 

 winter, set out on another tour to the southward, visiting every 

 town of importance as far as Savannah, in the state of Georgia, 

 during which excursion he suffered considerably from the inclemency 

 of the season, — the fatigue completely knocking up his horse. He 

 was, however, gratified by it ; and, in addition to a few subscribers, 

 procured several friends, and some information useful to the future 

 volumes. He had also an opportunity of renewing his acquaintance 

 with the president at Washington, and the former misunderstanding 

 regarding the expedition to the Mississippi, seems to have been 

 mutually forgotten. He says — "The President received me very 

 kindly. I asked for nobody to introduce me, but merely sent him 

 a line that I was there, when he ordered me to be immediately 

 admitted. He has given me a letter to a gentleman in Virginia, 

 who is to introduce me to a person there, who, Mr Jefferson says, 

 has spent his whole life in studying the manners of our birds, and 

 from whom I am to receive a world of facts and observations." 



He did not return till March 1809, having been absent above 

 three months, and the fatigue and expense of travelling obliged him 

 to return by sea. Immediately before going on board, he thus 

 writes Mr Bartram from Savannah : — 



" Three months, my dear friend, are passed since I started from 

 you at Kingsess. This is the most arduous, expensive, and fatigu- 

 ing expedition I ever undertook. I have, however, gained my 

 point, in procuring two hundred and fifty subscribers, in all, for my 

 Ornithology, and a great mass of information respecting the birds 

 that winter in the southern states, and some that never visit the 

 middle states ; and this information I have derived personally, and 

 can therefore the more certainly depend upon it. 



