Ixxii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
To His Excellency Thomas Jefferson, 
President of the United States. 
“ Sir, 
“Having been engaged, these several years, in collecting 
materials and furnishing drawings from nature, with the design of 
publishing a new Ornithology of the United States of America, so 
deficient in the works of Catesby, Edwards, and other Europeans, 
I have ti aversed the greater part of our northern and eastern dis- 
tricts ; and have collected many birds undescribed by these natu- 
ralists. Upwards of one hundred drawings are completed ; and 
two plates in folio already engraved. But as many beautiful tribes 
fi equent the Ohio, and the extensive country through which it pas- 
ses, that probably never visit the Atlantic states ; and as faithful 
representations of these can be taken only from living nature, or 
from birds newly killed ; I had planned an expedition down that 
river, from Pittsburg to the Mississippi, thence to Neworleans, and 
to continue my researches by land in return to Philadelphia. I 
had engaged as a companion and assistant Mr. William Bartram 
of this place, whose knowledge of Botany, as well as Zoology, would 
have enabled me to make the best of the voyage, and to collect 
many new specimens in both those departments. Sketches of these 
Avere to have been taken on the spot ; and the subjects put in a 
state of preservation to finish our drawings from, as time would 
permit. Wg intended to set out from Pittsburg about the begin- 
ning of May ; and expected to reach Neworleans in September. 
“ But my venerable friend, Mr. Bartram, taking into more 
serious consideration his advanced age, being near seventy, and 
the Aveakness of his eye-sight ; and apprehensive of his inability to 
encounter the fatigues and deprivations unavoidable in so exten- 
sive a tour ; having, to my extreme regret, and the real loss of 
science, been induced to decline the journey ; I had reluctantly 
abandoned the enterprise, and all hopes of accomplishing my pur- 
