John James Audubon | Page 7

Zephyr was a wonderful
example. He was an admirable marksman, an expert swimmer, a clever
rider, possessed great activity, prodigious strength, and was notable for
the elegance of his figure, and the beauty of his features, and he aided
Nature by a careful attendance to his dress. Besides other
accomplishments, he was musical, a good fencer, danced well, had
some acquaintance with legerdemain tricks, worked in hair, and could
plait willow baskets." He adds that Audubon once swam across the
Schuylkill with him on his back.

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
entering 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 business; his first venture was in
indigo, and cost him several hundred pounds. Rozier succeeded no
better; his first speculation 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 statement 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 so
strong that his neighbours sent a constable to him with a message to
abate the nuisance.
Despairing of becoming successful business men in either New York or
Philadelphia, he and Rozier soon returned to Mill Grove. During some
of their commercial enterprises they had visited Kentucky and thought
so well of the outlook there that now their thoughts turned thitherward.
Here we get the first date from Audubon; on April 8, 1808, he and
Lucy Bakewell were married. The plantation of Mill Grove had been

previously sold, and the money invested in goods with which to open a
store in Louisville, Kentucky. The day after the marriage, Audubon and
his wife and Mr. Rozier started on their journey. In crossing the
mountains to Pittsburg the coach in which they were travelling upset,
and Mrs. Audubon was severely bruised. From Pittsburg they floated
down the Ohio in a flatboat in company with several other young
emigrant families. The voyage occupied twelve days and was no doubt
made good use of by Audubon in observing the wild nature along
shore.
In Louisville, he and Rozier opened a large store which promised well.
But Audubon's heart was more and more with the birds, and his
business more and more neglected. Rozier attended to the counter, and,
Audubon says, grew rich, but he himself spent most of the time in the
woods or hunting with the planters settled about Louisville, between
whom and himself a warm attachment soon sprang up. He was not
growing rich, but he was happy. "I shot, I drew, I looked on Nature
only," he says, "and my days were happy beyond human conception,
and beyond this I really cared not."
He says that the only part of the commercial business he enjoyed was
the ever engaging journeys which he made to New York and
Philadelphia to purchase goods.
These journeys led him through the "beautiful, the darling forests of
Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania," and on one occasion he says he
lost sight of the pack horses carrying his goods and his dollars, in his
preoccupation with a new warbler.
During his residence in Louisville, Alexander Wilson, his great rival in
American ornithology, called upon him. This is Audubon's account of
the meeting: "One fair morning I was surprised by the sudden entrance
into our counting room at Louisville of Mr. Alexander Wilson, the
celebrated author of the American Ornithology, of whose existence I
had never until that moment been apprised. This happened in March,
1810. How well do I remember him as he then walked up to me. His
long, rather hooked nose, the keenness of his eyes, and his prominent
cheek bones, stamped his countenance with a peculiar character. His
dress, too, was of a kind not usually seen in that part of the country; a
short coat, trousers and a waistcoat of grey cloth. His stature was not
above the middle size. He had two volumes under his arm, and as he

approached the table at which I was working, I thought I discovered
something like astonishment in his countenance. He, however,
immediately proceeded to disclose the object of his visit, which was to
procure subscriptions for his work. He opened his books, explained the
nature of his occupations, and requested my patronage. I felt surprised
and gratified at the sight of his volumes, turned over a few of the plates,
and