In the course of the Audubon and Bakewell partnership[228] the naturalist became involved in a personal quarrel with a man whose initials are given as "S—— B——." It seems that in 1817 Audubon's mechanic, David Prentice, had built for him a small steamboat, though for what purpose is not known. When their interests were severed, we are told, Mr. B—— purchased this steamer, but paid for it in worthless paper. The captain of the craft ran her down to the Mississippi and thence to New Orleans, and Audubon, who was determined to arrest this man if necessary, started in pursuit in a skiff. He failed, however, to overhaul the fugitive, and reached New Orleans only to find that his vessel had been surrendered to another claimant. This was probably in May, 1819, for in his journal of the following year, under date of November 23, when he was again moving down the rivers but in more leisurely fashion, he speaks of two large eagle's nests, one of which he remembered having seen as he "went to New Orleans eighteen months" before. Through the researches of a later historian I am now able to give a more exact account of this affair. The purchasers of the steamboat were William R. Bowen, Samuel Adams Bowen, Robert Speed, Edmund Townes, Obediah Smith, George Brent and Bennett Marshall, who immediately sued Audubon in the sum of $10,000, on the plea that he had maliciously taken out an attachment upon the vessel in New Orleans, where it had been detained. They represented to the judge of the circuit court, Henry P. Broadnax, that Audubon was about to leave Kentucky, and a warrant was issued to arrest him; he was taken into custody, said the narrator whom I am following, "but executed a bail bond in the sum of $10,000 with Fayette Posey as surety, and was released." Convinced that a trial at Henderson would lead only to a defeat of justice, Audubon now served notice that he would apply for a change of venue to another county. "That notice together with the other papers in the action, is among the records of the Daviess circuit court, at Owensboro, Kentucky. It was written and signed by Audubon. Application for a change of venue was made at Hardinsburg and the case was transferred to the Daviess circuit court." When the case was called, the plaintiffs asked for a continuance, and it was granted them, but when the case was called again at the next term of court, the plaintiffs failed to appear, and the action was finally dismissed.