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1838-1839 Victor Audubon completed arrangements for the publication of the Birds in London, and began to think about preceding the rest of the family to New York with a visit to Charleston. Victor had heard a lot about Bachman's other daughter, the sprightly Mary Eliza and he had recently ended his courtship of the singer Adelaide Kemble, younger sister of actress Fanny Kemble. Victor turned up on the Bachman's doorstep without warning, early in the morning of April 5, 1839. Arrangements were made for him to sleep at the house of Mrs. Mary E. Davis several blocks away. The roses, crepe myrtle, lilies and sweet-scented jesamine vines in the Bachman gardens provided a romantic setting for Victor's courtship of Mary Eliza. Eliza fell in love and promised to marry him. Victor Audubon departed for New York the middle of May 1839 and moved into Mrs. Weldon's boardinghouse. Bachman soon joined him to await the arrival of the Toronto which carried John, Maria, expecting her second child, and Lu Lu. The three men had important business to discuss--Audubon had decided to publish The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America with Bachman as his co-author-but no details had been reached concerning an agreement. The Toronto reached New York mid-July and the Audubons settled into rooms at Mrs. Waldron's boardinghouse. Maria Martin and her sister Harriet Bachman were given the funds to make the trip to New York by their mother to see her great-grandaughter while Eliza Bachman remained in Charleston to care for her brothers and bedridden grandmother. While Maria flourished, Eliza--bride-to-be of Victor--coughed up blood, a symptom of consumption. Victor and his family received word in November Eliza's survival was in doubt. Victor left by ship for Charleston and Maria Martin suggested that he spend the winter there. Lucy Audubon would have none of this-Eliza must join them in New York where expert doctors were available. Once again Bachman joined the two families by performing the marriage service for Victor and Eliza. Audubon, meanwhile, had announced he would publish a miniature edition of the Birds and test the waters for sales of The Quadrupeds with a "small edition." The new year found Audubon optimistic. The illustrations for The Quadrupeds would be ready in two years. Audubon and his sons would collect mammals in the wilds, he and his "Sweetheart" Maria Martin would paint them in the drawing room of the Bachman residence. The first "number," a set of five prints, would be out "by the 1st of May Next!" Bachman was less sanguine about how rapidly this book could be put together. He was more concerned about the health of his daughter, Maria Audubon, and his doubts were only confirmed when in February Maria, Miss Lucy, Harriet and John Woodhouse arrived for a visit and he saw for himself that her frame was ravaged by disease. Audubon and Bachman's visit ended abruptly in early June. Audubon could no longer watch his son and dying daughter-in-law struggle on. Drinking had been his downfall. Victor sensed something was wrong when his father arrived back in New York on June 12, and wrote to Charleston in search of an explanation. Bachman described for him the spiral into darkness that Audubon had undergone. Maria Audubon died in Charleston on September 15 and was buried in the graveyard of St. John's Lutheran Church. John, Lu Lu, and Harriet, accompanied by Maria Martin, boarded a ship bound for New York. Maria found her other niece, Eliza Audubon, "sadly changed." Victor, Eliza and Maria set out for New Orleans and Cuba where it was felt the climate there might prolong her life. Victor and Maria lost confidence in Cuba as a health spa, and left on May 8 to spend a week in Charleston before returning to New York. Two doctors who were family friends warned the family Eliza might not survive the voyage north. Eliza survived the trip but died in New York on May 25, 1841. The sorrow of the two friends ran deep over the loss of Maria and Eliza aged 23 and 22 years, respectively. Audubon consoled himself in his studio with his brushes and painted a baby cottontail attended by its parents. He wrote at the bottom, "I drew this Hare during one of the days of deepest sorrow I have felt in my life, and my only solace was derived from my Labor." |
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