now let us return, for who cares to listen to the love-tale of a
naturalist, whose feelings may be supposed to be as light as the
feathers which he delineates !
For a period of nearly twenty years, my life was a succession
of vicissitudes. I tried various branches of commerce, but they
all proved unprofitable, doubtless because my whole mind was
ever filled with my passion for rambling and admiring those objects
of nature from which alone I received the purest gratification.
I had to struggle against the will of all who at that period
called themselves my friends. I must here, however, except my
wife and children. The remarks of my other friends irritated me
beyond endurance, and, breaking through all bonds, I gave
myself entirely up to my pursuits. Any one unacquainted with
the extraordinary desire which I then felt of seeing and judging
for myself, would doubtless have pronounced me callous to
every sense of duty, and regardless of every interest. I undertook
long and tedious journeys, ransacked the woods, the lakes,
the prairies, and the shores of the Atlantic. Years were spent
away from my family. Yet, reader, will you believe it, I had
no other object in view, than simply to enjoy the sight of nature.
Never for a moment did I conceive the hope of becoming
in any degree useful to my kind, until I accidentally formed acquaintance
with the PRINCE of MUSIGNANO at Philadelphia, to
which place I went, with the view of proceeding eastward along
the coast.
I reached Philadelphia on the 5th April 1824, just as the
sun was sinking beneath the horizon. Excepting the good Dr
MEASE, who had visited me in my younger days, I had scarcely
a friend in the city; for I was then unacquainted with
HARLAN/WETHERELL, MACMURTRIE,LESUEUR, or SULLY.
I called on him, and showed him some of my drawings. He
presented me to the celebrated CHARLES LUCIAN BONAPARTE,
who in his turn introduced me to the Natural History
Society of Philadelphia. But the patronage which I so much
needed, I soon found myself compelled to seek elsewhere. I
left Philadelphia, and visited New York, where I was received
with a kindness well suited to elevate my depressed spirits;
and afterwards, ascending that noble stream the Hudson, glided
over our broad lakes, to seek the wildest solitudes of the
pathless and gloomy forests.
It was'in these forests that, for the first time, I communed
with myself as to the possible event of my visiting Europe
again; and I began to fancy my work under the multiplying
efforts of the graver. Happy days, and nights of pleasing
dreams! I read over the catalogue of my collection, and
thought how it might be possible for an unconnected and unaided
individual like myself to accomplish the grand scheme.
Chance, and chance alone, had divided my drawings into three
different classes, depending upon the magnitude of the objects
which they represented; and, although I did not at that time
possess all the specimens necessary, I arranged them as well as
I could into parcels of five plates, each of which now forms a
Nmnber of my Illustrations. I improved the whole as much as
was in my power; and as I daily retired farther from the haunts
of man, determined to leave nothing undone, which my labour,
my time, or my purse, could accomplish.
Eighteen months elapsed. I returned to my family, then
in Louisiana, explored every portion of the vast woods around,
and at last sailed towards the Old World. But before we visit
the shores of hospitable England, 1 have the wish, good-natured