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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.
Audubon's capacity for work was extraordinary. His enthusiasm and perseverance were equally extraordinary. His purposes and ideas fairly possessed him. Never did a man consecrate himself more fully to the successful completion of the work of his life, than did Audubon to the finishing of his "American Ornithology."
His drawings do not show the mastery of the subject and the versatility that Audubon's do; they have not the artistic excellence, but they less frequently do violence to the bird's character by exaggerated activity. The colouring in Audubon's birds is also often exaggerated. His purple finch is as brilliant as a rose, whereas at its best, this bird is a dull carmine.
He has given a minute and graphic account of this adventure in his journal. The cupidity of the woman had been aroused by the sight of Audubon's gold watch and chain. A wounded Indian, who had also sought refuge in the shanty had put Audubon upon his guard. It was midnight, Audubon lay on some bear skins in one corner of the room, feigning sleep.
The monkey was chained, and the parrot buried, but the tragedy awakened in him a lasting love for his feathered friends. Audubon's father seems to have been the first to direct his attention to the study of birds, and to the observance of Nature generally.
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.
These things very naturally kindled Audubon's quick temper, and he demanded of his tutor and guardian money enough to take him to France to consult with his father. Da Costa gave him a letter of credit on a sort of banker-broker residing in New York. To New York he accordingly went, as above stated, and found that the banker-broker was in the plot to pack him off to India.
The room was full of cheerful dignity; the heavy, old-fashioned furniture of the Stuffed Animal House was unchanged, even the pictures, hanging rather near the ceiling, had not been removed steel-engravings of Landseer's dogs, and old and very good colored prints of Audubon's birds.
One readily overlooks his style, which is often verbose and affected, in consideration of enthusiasm so genuine and purpose so single. There has never been a keener eye than Audubon's, though there have been more discriminative ears. Nuttall, for instance is far more happy in his descriptions of the songs and notes of birds, and more to be relied upon.
Perhaps some day he might get a chance to see Audubon's drawings, and so have all his bird worries settled by a single book. That summer a new boy at school added to Yan's savage equipment. This boy was neither good nor bright; he was a dunce, and had been expelled from a boarding school for misconduct, but he had a number of schoolboy accomplishments that gave him a tinge of passing glory.
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