The road which we followed from Old Town to Bangor was literally covered with Penobscot Indians, returning from market. On reaching the latter beautiful town, we found very comfortable lodgings in an excellent hotel; and the next day we proceeded by the mail to Boston.[23]
Audubon felt that he ought to remain in America for at least another year, and decided to send his son, Victor, to England to take charge of his publication. This work had now become a paramount family interest, and for the nineteen years of life that remained to the elder Audubon, his two sons virtually became his assistants, John as an active collector and companion in the field, and Victor as his business agent and secretary. In writing again to Edward Harris, from Boston, November 1, 1832, Audubon noted that they had found the Canada Grouse in abundance, and that he was assured of its breeding commonly within the Union; Victor, he added, had sailed to England, "on the tenth of last month" on the packet ship South America.
The autumn of 1832 and the following winter were spent in Boston, where the naturalist was busily engaged in drawing and in laying plans for the now famous expedition to the coast of Labrador. Meantime Bachman, who was keenly interested in his success, was urging him to return to Charleston; on October 20, 1832, he wrote: "A month in your society would afford me greater pleasure than the highest prize in a lottery. I cannot, I find, feel myself at home with new birds without having the skins to refer to. My cabinet is enlarging every day. Henry Ward now prepares the skins—a pair of each.... What ducks, that are not likely to be obtained for you in Boston, would you like Maria to draw for you?" Writing again on the 26th of October, he said:[24]
I wish to know what you are doing—what progress your work is making; and, whilst I feel deeply interested for your fame ... I feel also a particular interest in your personal welfare, and that of all that belongs to you;... Besides, I want to see you once more to ascertain whether you have stuck to your good resolutions, viz., never to swear (which is a vulgar practice for one who is conversant with the most beautiful of God's works, the feathered race), and never to work on Sundays. However, you are now under the tutorage of your good wife, and, I doubt not, you are as obedient to her in these things, as you ought to be.... You say new birds are scarce. So they are, and yet, in my opinion, we will occasionally find them for half a century to come. (November 11) Maria has figured for you the "White Hibiscus," and, also, a red one, both natives and beautiful; a Euonymus in seed, in which our Sylvia is placed; the white Nondescript Rose; the Gordonica, a Begonia.... She is prepared to send them to you; shall she ship them at once to Boston?... Your resolution to publish the 3rd. Vol. of Water Birds, you will recollect was partly entered into here, and from that moment, my mind was at ease. It will give you four or five years in advance, and will enable you, in a 5th. Vol., to add all recent discoveries of Land and Water Birds. Should you yet be able to go to Florida and the Pacific, I apprehend that you will extend our American Ornithology to 460 or 470 species, perhaps more. Your sons being able to skin birds and paint them, is a great desideratum; it should be mentioned in the preface to your next volume. The talents of the family combined ... will now place the work beyond the fear of falling through, even in case of your death, and the public ought to know it. But you must push for subscribers. If your son Victor can do nothing in Europe, you must go there yourself, and sooner than let the work suffer, you must go on a pilgrimage throughout all the great cities of our Union. Should God spare your life, I want to hear of you enjoying, in your old age "Otium cum dignitate," and to see your children reaping some of your recompense.
JOHN BACHMAN
AFTER A RARE ENGRAVING BY CHARLES C. WRIGHT OF A PORTRAIT BY A. FISHER, PUBLISHED AT CHARLESTON IN 1822. FROM A COPY IN POSSESSION OF MR. JOSEPH V. JEANES.
