Ypsilanti sentinel. [volume] (Ypsilanti, Washtenaw Co., Mich.) 1843-1900, 1847-08-25

BIT being In the dark, none ct them. Look effect,
although several lodged in. the deck OF the boat
Within few inches of him. After desperate
resistance, during which one of the robbers was
shot. the boat was rescued. During the en-
counter, one of the hands received a very severe
wound III the arm from bowie-knife, but the
rest escaped unhurt. Mr.. Banvard continued
with the boat until il reached the Grand Gulf,
where he obtained PERMISSION to paint some
views. He had found the receipts Of the float
ing expedition to be more potatnes than dimes,
terest and left. We know nothiug farther of
this expedition, but Banvard seems to have
been satitied with floating dioramas.
After tiie, Mr.. Barnard engaged in paint
ing at Now Orleans, Natchez, acknowledgements
at Cincinnati and Louisville, and was liberal
ly rewarded. Not content, however. he execu-
ted very fine panorama of the city of Venice,
and exhibited in the West, with considerable
success, and afterwards sold it at good price.
Having accumulated little capital, we next
lind him at st. Louis, as the proprietor of the
st. Louis museum, which he had purchased of
Mr.. Koch, who had left il to exhibit his large
skeleton of the .Misspuran. But here fate frown
ed again upon his efforts. He remained in ST.
Louis just long enough to lose all he had pre-
viously earned, ynd then left for Cincinnati,
where he Jared little better. He then procured
a small boat and started down the Ohio river.
without dime, and lived several days upon
nuts which he collected in the woods. His
next stodping place was small town where he
did some painting, and sold revolving pistol
which he had given twelve dollars for in st. l..
for twenty-five dollars. With this capital he
bought.a larger boat, got some produce aboard.
which he retailed out along shore ; then sold
his concern for fifty dollars. Having now a liz
tie capital, the young artist made several very
successful speculatons, and managed to make,
during this Quixotic expedition, three thousand
dollars. With the capital thus accumulated,
he commenced his grand project of painting the
Panorama of the Mississippi.
He procured small skiff and descended the
river TO make the necessary drawings, in the
Spring of 1910, and the first sketch was made
Just before he became of age. Had he been
aware, when Ee commenced the undertaking, of
the vast amount of labor it required, he would
have shrunk from the task in dismay !; but hav-
ing commenced the, work. he was, determined.
to proceed, being spurred cr to its completion,
perhaps, by the doubts OF some of his friends tn
whom he communicated his project, as to its
practicability, and by the assertion of some for
eign writers, that "America had no artists COM
mensurate with the grandeur and extent of her
scenery" The idea of gain never entered his
mind when he commenced the undertaking, but
he was actuated by patriotic and honorable
ambition, that America should produce the lar
gest painting in the world.
One of the greatest difficulties he encounter
ed, was the preparatory labor he had to under
go In making the necessary drawing. For this
purpose he had TO travel thousands of miles in
an open skiff alone. crossing and ro-crossing
the rapid stream, in many places, over two miles
in breadth, to select proper points of view from
which to take his sketch his hands became
hardened with constantly plying the oar, and
his skin as tawney as an Indians from expo
sure to the rays of the sun, and the yicissitpdes
of the weather. He would be weeks together
without speaking to a human being, having no
other company than his rife, which furnished
him with his meat from the game of the woods
or the fowls of the river. When the sun be-
gan to sink behind the lofty bluffs, and evening
to approach. he would select some secluded
sandy cove, over shadowel by thL lofty cotton
wood, draw out his skiff from the water, and re-
pair to the woods TO hunt his supper. Having
killed his game, he would return, dless, cock,
and from some fallen log would eat it with his
biscuit, with no other beverage than the whole
him. Having finished his lonely meal, he void
roll himsefi in his blanket, creep under his frail
skiff, which he turned over to shield him from
the night dews, and with his portfolio of draw
ings for his pillow, and the sand Of the bar for
his bed, would sleep soundly till the morning !;
when he would arise from his lowly couch, eat
his breakfast before the rays of the rising sun
had dispersed the humid mist from the surface
of the river--then would he start fresh to his
task again. In this way he spent over four
hundred days, making the preparatory drawings.
Several nights during the time, he was compell
ed to creep from under his skiff where be slept,
and sit ell night on log, breastng the pelting
storm, through fear that the banks of the river
would cave upon him, and to escape the falling
trees. During this time, he pulled his little
skif more than two thousand miles. In the lat
ter part of the summer he reached New Orleans
The yellow fever was raging in the city, but
unmindful of that, he made his drawing of the
place. The sun, the while was so intensely
hot, that his skin became so burnt that it peel
ed from off the back of his hands and his face
His eyes became inflamed by such constant and
extraordinary efforts, from which unhappy eff
fects he has not recovered to this day. His
drawings completed, he erected building at
Louisville, Kentucky, to tranfer themto the can
vas. His object in painting this picture in the
West was to exhibit it to, and procure testimo-
mails from those who were best qualified to
Judge Of IFS fidelity-the practical river men !;
and lie has procured the names Of nearly all the
principal Captains and pilots navigating the
Mississippi, freely testifying to the correctness
of the scenery.
Mr.. Banoard's money gave out just before he
finished his picture. He endeavored to get cred
it for few pieces of canvass to complete it, of
the merchant of whom he had purchased the
principal part of this material, and with whom
he hae expended hundreds of dollars while spec
ulating Oh the river, but IN vai:. Fortunately
he obtained small job to decorate regalia for
the Odd-Fellows. With the avails he procured
canvafs to finish his dieture. He was obliged
during all this time, to practice great economy.
He split and carried his wood and water after
it was too dark to paint. When his pictuae