Obtains a few drawing pupils; is recommended by John Vanderlyn and Governor Robertson, but lives from hand to mouth until June 16, when Audubon and Mason leave for Shippingport; a fellow passenger, Mrs. James Pirrie, of West Feliciana, offers Audubon a position as tutor to her daughter, and with Mason he settles on her plantation at St. Francisville, Bayou Sara, where he remains nearly five months; some of his finest drawings are made at this time.
October 21.—Leaves abruptly and returns with Mason to New Orleans, where he again becomes a drawing teacher, and resumes his studies of birds with even greater avidity.
December.—Is joined by his family, and winter finds them in dire straits.
1822
March 16.—To Natchez with Mason, paying their passage by doing portraits of the captain and his wife; while on the way finds that many of his drawings have been seriously damaged by gunpowder; teaches French, drawing and dancing at Natchez, and Washington, Mississippi.
July 23.—Parts with Mason, after giving him his gun, paper and chalks, with which to work his way north.
September.—Mrs. Audubon, who was acting as governess in a family at New Orleans, joins him at Natchez, where she obtains a similar position.
Receives his first lessons in the use of oils from John Stein, itinerant portrait painter, in Natchez, at close of this year.
1823
January.—Mrs. Audubon is engaged by the Percys, of West Feliciana parish, Louisiana, and starts a private school at "Beechwoods," belonging to their plantation, in St. Francisville, where she remains five years.