I beg you not to neglect the affair of David Ross; if you can collect this sum, you will use it for our needs. I am annoyed that all these mishaps prevent you from working;[103] be well persuaded that it is no fault of mine, and that I am guilty of no negligence. You speak of my going to that country; if such had been my intention I should have done it long ago. I am still troubled with an inflammation of the lungs; and one ought not to be ill in a foreign country, where he does not receive the care that he enjoys in his own home. You ask me to bring you money.... You know better than anyone else what was my [financial] position when I sold to you; by that alone you must know how difficult this would be for me. It is necessary to manage so that our object suffices us [or so that the mine pays its way], and if we cannot work on a grand scale, we must needs do the best with our affairs on a lower plane; for that I depend on you. I salute you. P.S. When you shall have my papers from Mr. Miers Fisher, you will find a promissory note of Mr. Samuel Plaisance of Richmond, for the business of the widow Ross. If there were justice there this sum would be paid to me with the costs. The foregoing letters show that Dacosta had been asked to oppose the proposed marriage of the younger Audubon to Lucy Bakewell until consent should be given; that he was calling for more money to exploit the lead mine and was urging Lieutenant Audubon to come to America; and that their relations were becoming strained, Dacosta, to prove his title to a one-half interest in the mine and farm, having threatened to take his case to the courts. This mining experiment was spread over many years. Before turning to the sequel (see Chapter XI), let us glance at the picture which the naturalist has left of his unsympathetic tutor. "Dacosta," he said, "was intended to teach me mineralogy and mining engineering, but in fact" he "knew nothing of either; besides which he was a covetous wretch, who did all he could to ruin my father, and indeed swindled us both to a large amount. I had to go to France to expose him to my father to get rid of him, which I fortunately accomplished at sight of my kind parent. A greater scoundrel than Dacosta never probably existed, but peace be with his soul." In one respect only, said Audubon, did he receive any sympathy from his guardian: Dacosta commended his drawings of birds. "One morning," Audubon relates, "when I was drawing a figure of the _Ardea herodias_ [the great blue heron], he assured me that the time might come when I should be a great American naturalist"; however curious it might appear, he adds, that praise "from the lips of such a man should affect me, I assure you that they had great weight with me and I felt a certain degree of pride in these words even then."