Page:Stryker's American Register and Magazine, Volume 6, 1851.djvu/215

Rh Besides his contributions to periodicals, Mr. Colton was the author of several popular works, of which the principal are, "Ship and Shore," "Visit to Constantinople and Athens," "Deck and Port," being a journal of his voyage in the ship Congress to California, by way of the Sandwich Islands, and "Three Years in California." He established at Monterey the first newspaper which ever appeared in California, entitled "The Californian." It is now called "The Alta Californian." He also built the first school-house and the first public hall in the State. Mr. Colton was a faithful officer, a kind-hearted friend, and a sincere Christian.

25th. At Richmond, Va.,, M.D., aged 53, for a long time Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine in the Medical Department of Hampden Sydney College.

27th. At Minniesland, on the Hudson, near New York,, aged 71, the celebrated Ornithologist. He was born at New Orleans, on the 4th May, 1780, his father being an admiral in the French navy. He received his education at Paris, the celebrated David being one of his teachers. He returned to Louisiana at the age of seventeen, and entered on his paternal estates. He soon afterwards married; and his circumstances were such that he might have devoted himself to a life of luxurious ease. But his fondness for the beauties of nature led him to explore the wilds; and he planned his great work on American birds as early as 1803. His father had given him a fine plantation near the Schuylkill, in Pennsylvania; and he had engaged in some mercantile speculations at Philadelphia, which are said to have been unsuccessful. In 1810, therefore, he sailed down the Ohio in a skiff, with his wife and child, in search of some spot in the wilderness which he might make his home, and where he might perform those explorations to which he had resolved to devote all his energies. He accordingly fixed on a site in Kentucky, and during the next twenty years he pursued his researches all over North America, and met with many romantic incidents and adventures. The drawings of the birds which he procured were made by himself, and they were superior to the colored engravings which afterwards appeared in his great work, although those who have seen the latter will allow that they are a credit to the engraver. The sacrifice of time and labor, and the degree of exposure which Mr. Audubon sometimes underwent, in procuring his specimens, were such as would seem almost incredible to less enthusiastic admirers of nature.

At one time he lost nearly 1,000 drawings by fire. The loss affected him so that he could not sleep for several nights; but he resolved to replace it by renewed labors. In this attempt he was