With regard to Florida, nothing will be done by naturalists for at least two years. Your Indian friends, the cut-throats, have scalped almost every woman and child south of St. Augustine, save those on Key West. They have burnt and plundered every plantation; and although they will probably be, in a great measure, put down next winter, yet there will, undoubtedly, remain many small predatory bands that will make no bones of scalping at Ornithologist _secundum artem_; and would ask no questions whether he were the friend or enemy of William Penn. Of Texas, I think better, and thither, or along its borders, you may, I think, venture—for the Texans are our friends. I suppose Genl. Gaines will keep the Comanches quiet.[133] Bachman kept his friends informed of the progress of the epidemic, which had placed an embargo over his city; at the same time he sent news of the Anhingas, Caracara Eagles and Cormorants, which had been successfully held in captivity for the naturalist, and added: "These are awful times in money matters, but of this you will hear enough when we meet. Everyone nearly has failed, but the Parsons and Ornithologists." On September 13 Audubon started for Philadelphia, anxious to see with his own eyes those western collections which had so stirred his curiosity. It seems that in 1834, Dr. Thomas Nuttall and Dr. John Kirk Townsend set out on a journey to the mouth of the Columbia River; Nuttall was first of all a botanist, and is said to have carried no gun, but Townsend was an experienced ornithologist and made extensive collections of birds, a part of which he sent in care of Nuttall to Philadelphia in 1835, although he himself did not return east until the close of 1837. One of Audubon's great ambitions had been to explore the regions which they had recently visited, and in the circumstances we can sympathize with his desire to acquire so valuable an acquisition for the work upon which he had been long engaged. The object of his immediate quest apparently had been entrusted to the Academy of Natural Sciences, an institution which had not always shown itself friendly to his claims, and which in this instance is said to have assisted the travelers with funds to prosecute their journey. The collection, said Audubon, contained "about forty new species of birds, and its value cannot be described." Balked in his initial efforts to obtain the coveted prize, after two days of fruitless efforts on the part of his Philadelphia friends, he returned to New York; Edward Harris then came forward with the offer of $500 for the purchase of the collection outright, but negotiations were not immediately successful.