last years speak of him as particularly lacking in self-consciousness.

Although he affected the dress of the dandies of his time, he was temperate
and abstemious. "I ate no butcher's meat, lived chiefly on fruits,
vegetables, and fish, and never drank a glass of spirits or wine until my
wedding day." "All this time I was fair and rosy, strong and active as one
of my age and sex could be, and as active and agile as a buck."

That he was energetic and handy and by no means the mere dandy that his
extravagance in dress might seem to indicate, is evidenced from the fact
that about this time he made a journey on foot to New York and accomplished
the ninety miles in three days in mid-winter. But he was angry, and anger
is better than wine to walk on.

The cause of his wrath was this; a lead mine had been discovered upon the
farm of Mill Grove, and Audubon had applied to his father for counsel in
regard to it. In response, the elder Audubon had sent over a man by the
name of Da Costa who was to act as his son's partner and partial guardian--
was to teach him mineralogy and mining engineering, and to look after his
finances generally. But the man, Audubon says, knew nothing of the subjects
he was supposed to teach, and was, besides, "a covetous wretch, who did all
he could to ruin my father, and, indeed, swindled both of us to a large
amount." Da Costa pushed his authority so far as to object to Audubon's
proposed union with Lucy Bakewell, as being a marriage beneath him, and
finally plotted to get the young man off to India. 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. This disclosure