xlvi 
LIFE OF 
This is written at the commencement of 1806, nearly two years 
after he first conceived the idea of such a work. These attempts 
seem to have convinced him that he could not himself attain 
sufficient proficiency to produce the effects he wished, and he 
proposed to Mr Lawson to embark in the work as a joint concern. 
These proposals Mr Lawson, from prudential motives, declined, 
and Wilson, with an enthusiasm similar to what had ever actuated 
him in like circumstances, declared that he would proceed alone 
in the publication, should it cost him his life. “ I shall at least 
leave a small beacon to point out where I perished” 
A circumstance at this time occurred which prevented him from 
starting immediately with his design, and the delay was perhaps 
the indirect means of more completely forwarding his views ; 
for it is more than probable, that a commencement of an under- 
taking of such extent, on his own narrow means alone, would have 
been crushed ere its merits could have spread. Mr Jefferson, the 
President of the United States, had it in contemplation to despatch 
an expedition to explore the country of the Mississippi, and Wilson, 
anxious to see these new regions, and to procure additional 
materials for his work, wished to be chosen as a naturalist to the 
party. He applied to Mr Bartram, who cheerfully wrote to the 
President, recommending his friend, and Wilson forwarded the 
communication with the following letter from himself : — 
“ 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 traversed the greater part of our northern and eastern 
districts, and have collected many birds undescribed by these 
naturalists. Upwards of one hundred drawings are completed ; 
and two plates in folio already engraved. But as many beautiful 
tribes frequent the Ohio, and the extensive country through which 
it passes, that probably never visit the Atlantic States ; and as 
faithful representations of these can only be taken from living 
