Audubon remained in New York from the 7th to the 13th of September. On Sunday, the 12th, he wrote to Edward Harris, in part as follows:[132]
Audubon to Edward Harris
My dear Friend—
... Whilst running over the interesting list of the Species of Birds procured by Nuttall & Townsend in the Rocky Mountains, and the shores of the Pacific, I became so completely wrapt up with the desire to see these as soon as possible that I have concluded to go to Philadelphia tomorrow by the 10 o'clock boat. I will stay at Harlan's for two or three days and hope that you will meet me there, that I may have the pleasure of pressing your hand and talking to you.
You well know how anxious I am to make my work on the Birds of our Country as compleat as possible within my power:—you know that to reach this end I have spared neither time, labours or money: you are also aware that although this undertaking may never remunerate me, I am so enthusiastic as to indulge in the hope that God will grant me life to effect all this; but I am becoming old, and though very willing doubt whether I could support the fatigues connected with a journey of several years, and separated from my dear Family. Well the desiderata has come to Philadelphia at least in part, and if I could be allowed to pourtray the new species now there as an appendix to the Birds of America, I should be proud and happy to do so, but do you think that the Academy is likely to indulge me in this my wish? Do join me at Harlan's as soon as you can, and lend me a hand and try to promote my views through mutual Friends attatched to that Institution.
Audubon also communicated at once with John Bachman, whom he had planned to visit on his journey south, but soon learned that the cholera had broken out in Charleston and that the Seminoles were on the warpath in Florida. Said Bachman, writing on September 14:
With regard to Florida, nothing will be done by naturalists for at least two years. Your Indian friends, the cut-throats, have scalped almost every woman and child south of St. Augustine, save those on Key West. They have burnt and plundered every plantation; and although they will probably be, in a great measure, put down next winter, yet there will, undoubtedly, remain many small predatory bands that will make no bones of scalping at Ornithologist secundum artem; and would ask no questions whether he were the friend or enemy of William Penn. Of Texas, I think better, and thither, or along its borders, you may, I think, venture—for the Texans are our friends. I suppose Genl. Gaines will keep the Comanches quiet.[133]
Bachman kept his friends informed of the progress of the epidemic, which had placed an embargo over his city; at the same time he sent news of the Anhingas, Caracara Eagles and Cormorants, which had been successfully held in captivity for the naturalist, and added: "These are awful times in money matters, but of this you will hear enough when we meet. Everyone nearly has failed, but the Parsons and Ornithologists."
On September 13 Audubon started for Philadelphia, anxious to see with his own eyes those western collections which had so stirred his curiosity. It seems that in 1834, Dr. Thomas Nuttall and Dr. John Kirk Townsend set out on a journey to the mouth of the Columbia River; Nuttall was first of all a botanist, and is said to have carried no gun, but Townsend was an experienced ornithologist and made extensive collections of birds, a part of which he sent in care of Nuttall to Philadelphia in 1835, although he himself did not return east until the close of 1837. One of Audubon's great ambitions had been to explore the regions which they had recently visited, and in the circumstances we can sympathize with his desire to acquire so valuable an acquisition for the work upon which he had been long engaged. The object of his immediate quest apparently had been entrusted to the Academy of Natural Sciences, an institution which had not always shown itself friendly to his claims, and which in this instance is said to have assisted the travelers with funds to prosecute their journey. The collection, said Audubon, contained "about forty new species of birds, and its value cannot be described." Balked in his initial efforts to obtain the coveted prize, after two days of fruitless efforts on the part of his Philadelphia friends, he returned to New York; Edward Harris then came forward with the offer of $500 for the purchase of the collection outright, but negotiations were not immediately successful.
With his hunger still unappeased, Audubon now visited Boston on a canvassing tour, while his son remained with Nicholas Berthoud at New York. Setting out on the 20th of September, he traveled by the steamer Massachusetts and the Providence Railroad, paying seven dollars fare, "which included supper and breakfast"; the sail up Providence Bay in early morning was like a "fairy dream," and the locomotive in waiting then pulled the passengers from "Providence to Boston at the rate of fifteen miles an hour." We arrived, said he, at four in the afternoon: "a cart took my trunk, and placing myself by the side of the owner, we drove to the house of my friend, Dr. George C. Shattuck."