I wish here to express my gratitude both to Miss Audubon, and to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, for permitting me to draw freely from the "Life and Journals" just mentioned. The temptation is strong to let Audubon's graphic and glowing descriptions of American scenery, and of his tireless wanderings, speak for themselves.
It is from these volumes, and from the life by his widow, published in 1868, that I have gathered the material for this brief biography.
Audubon's life naturally divides itself into three periods: his youth, which was on the whole a gay and happy one, and which lasted till the time of his marriage at the age of twenty-eight; his business career which followed, lasting ten or more years, and consisting mainly in getting rid of the fortune his father had left him; and his career as an ornithologist which, though attended with great hardships and privations, brought him much happiness and, long before the end, substantial pecuniary rewards.
His ornithological tastes and studies really formed the main current of his life from his teens onward. During his business ventures in Kentucky and elsewhere this current came to the surface more and more, absorbed more and more of his time and energies, and carried him further and further from the conditions of a successful business career.
_May 4_. John James La Forest Audubon was born at Mandeville, Louisiana.
(Paucity of dates and conflicting statements make it impossible to insert dates to show when the family moved to St. Domingo, and thence to France.)
Returned to America from France. Here followed life at Mill Grove Farm, near Philadelphia.
Again in France for about two years. Studied under David, the artist. Then returned to America.
_April_ 8. Married Lucy Bakewell, and journeyed to Louisville, Kentucky, to engage in business with one Rozier.
_March_. First met Wilson, the ornithologist.
Various business ventures in Louisville, Hendersonville, and St. Geneviève, Kentucky, again at Hendersonville, thence again to Louisville.
Abandoned business career. Became taxidermist in Cincinnati.
Left Cincinnati. Began to form definite plans for the publication of his drawings. Returned to New Orleans.
Went to Natchez by steamer. Gunpowder ruined two hundred of his drawings on this trip. Obtained position of Drawing-master in the college at Washington, Mississippi. At the close of this year took his first lessons in oils.