When at last the ice broke up, splitting with reports like the thunder of heavy artillery, their prospects were dismal indeed, for their boat was immediately jammed by the rushing ice, and they were powerless to move her. "While we were gazing on the scene," to continue Audubon's record, "a tremendous crash was heard, which seemed to have taken place about a mile below, when suddenly the great dam gave way. The current of the Mississippi had forced its way against that of the Ohio, and in less than four hours we witnessed the complete breaking up of the ice." Having reloaded their goods, they were ready to start at a favorable moment, and taking leave of the friendly Indians, "as when brothers part," they pushed on through the floating ice, past Cape Girardeau, to Sainte Geneviève, a town which Audubon characterized as "not so large as dirty," declaring that the time spent there did not yield him half the pleasure he had felt at Tawapatee Bottom. It was near a granite tower which rose from a dangerous rock in the river below Ste. Geneviève that Audubon caught sight of what he afterwards described as "Washington's Eagle," a bird now believed to have been the true "bird of freedom," the "Bald-" or White-headed Eagle, but in an immature state. [Illustration: SIGNATURE TO THE RELEASE GIVEN BY AUDUBON TO FERDINAND ROZIER ON THE DISSOLUTION OF THEIR PARTNERSHIP AT STE. GENEVIÈVE, APRIL 6, 1811. From the Tom J. Rozier MSS.] Though their whisky was welcomed at Ste. Geneviève and what had cost the traders twenty-five cents, brought them two dollars, a gallon, Audubon heartily disliked the place and its people. Rozier, on the contrary, who had found plenty of Frenchmen with whom he could freely converse, was resolved to stay. Audubon accordingly proposed to sell out his share in the business, and the partnership was dissolved on April 6, 1811, Rozier paying part of the price in cash and the remainder in notes. In referring to the incident in his journal of 1820, Audubon wrote: "I parted with Mr. Rozier, and walked to Henderson in four days—165 miles"; but this does not agree with a later account, in which he spoke of having "purchased a beauty of a horse," and, happy in the prospect of again seeing his family, set out for Dr. Rankin's house in Kentucky. In the earlier record he also wrote that he once had a friend in trade, referring to Ferdinand Rozier, "with whom he did not agree, and so they parted forever"; but Audubon visited Ste. Geneviève in the autumn of 1811 and in the winter of 1812, probably for the purpose of collecting his money and settling his affairs, while the following letters of this period show that friendly relations with his old partner were not seriously impaired:[208] _John James Audubon to Ferdinand Rozier_ LOUISVILLE, _2d November 1811_. MR. F. ROZIER St. Geneviève. MY DEAR ROZIER;