Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)

by Francis Hobart Herrick

FOOTNOTES

[1] Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, No. 60.

[2] Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. iv, p. 222.

[3] Elliott Coues, Key to North American Birds, 4th ed., p. xxi (Boston, 1890).

[4] Audubon, in Audubon County, Iowa, in Beeker County, Minnesota, and in Wise County, Texas, as well as Audubon, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in which his old farm, "Mill Grove," is situated. Audubon Avenue is the first of the subterranean passages which lead from the entrance of Mammoth Cave, and is noted for its swarms of bats. Audubon Park, New York City, between the Hudson River and Broadway and extending from 156th, to 160th Streets, embraces a part of "Minnie's Land," the naturalist's old Hudson River estate, but is a realty designation and is now almost entirely covered with buildings (see [Chapter XXXVI]).

[5] The Audubon Monument Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences was appointed October 3, 1887, and made its final report in 1893, when this beautiful memorial was formally dedicated. Subscriptions from all parts of the United States amounted to $10,525.21. The monument is a Runic cross in white marble, ornamented with American birds and mammals which Audubon has depicted, and surmounts a die bearing a portrait of the naturalist, modeled from Cruikshank's miniature, with suitable inscriptions, the whole being supported on a base of granite; the total height is nearly 26 feet, and the weight 2 tons. It was presented to the Corporation of Trinity Parish by Professor Thomas Eggleston, and received by Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix. The cemetery has since been cut in two by the extension of Broadway; the monument is in the northerly section, close to the parish house of the Chapel of the Intercession.

The monument at New Orleans, mentioned below, was erected under the auspices of the Audubon Association, at a cost of $10,000, most of which was secured through the efforts of Mrs. J. L. Bradford, $1,500 having been contributed by residents of the Crescent City. The figure is in bronze, and stands on a high pedestal of Georgia granite.

The beautiful bust of Audubon at the American Museum of Natural History is by William Couper, of Newark, N. J.

[6] As will later appear, this was in reality the 120th anniversary.

[7] The first Audubon Society, devoted to the interests of bird protection, was organized by Dr. George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, in 1886, and 16,000 members were enrolled during the first year; Dr. Grinnell was also the father of the Audubonian Magazine (see [Bibliography, No. 190]), which made its first appearance in January, 1887; by the middle of that year the membership in the new society had increased to 38,000, but with the disappearance of the Magazine in 1889 the movement languished and came to a speedy end. In 1896 a fresh start was taken by the inauguration of State societies in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, and the movement gathered greater force through the inauguration in 1899 of the admirably conducted magazine, Bird-Lore, as its official organ. The State societies were federated in 1902, and the National Committee then created gave place in 1905 to the National Association. See Gilbert Trafton, Bird Friends, for an excellent summary of the work of the Audubon Societies, and the "Twelfth Annual Report of the National Association of Audubon Societies," Bird-Lore, vol. xviii (1916).

[8] In this year Charles Lanman, writer, and at a later time librarian of the Library of Congress, wrote to Victor Audubon as follows: "Are not you and your family willing now to let me write a book about your illustrious father? I feel confident that I could get up something very interesting and which would not only help the big work, but make money. I could have it brought out in handsome style, and should like to have well engraved a portrait and some half dozen views in Kentucky, Louisiana, and on the Hudson. Write me what you think about it." Lanman's letter is dated "Georgetown, D. C., Oct. 8, 1856"; on November 1 Victor Audubon replied, declining the proposal.

[9] Messrs. C. S. Francis & Company, of 554 Broadway, New York.

[10] The publishers in this instance do not appear to have been better informed, for the text of the Quadrupeds, from which they quote, was written by John Bachman, and the first volume of it was issued in London in 1847; see [Bibliography, No. 6].

[11] Rev. Dr. Adams was rector of this parish for twenty-five years, from 1863 to his death in February, 1888; he was the author of three volumes on religious subjects and various smaller tracts; from 1855 to 1863 he had charge of a church in Baltimore, Maryland, and while there published an anonymous pamphlet entitled "Slavery by a Marylander; Its Institution and Origin; Its Status Under the Law and Under the Gospel" (8 pp. 8vo. Baltimore, 1860).

[12] Buchanan said that the manuscript submitted to him was inordinately long and needed careful revision; he added that "while he could not fail to express his admiration for the affectionate spirit and intelligent sympathy with which the friendly editor discharged his task, he was bound to say that his literary experience was limited." After copying a passage from one of Audubon's journals, this editor had the unfortunate habit of drawing his pen through the original; in this way hundreds of pages of Audubon's admirable "copper-plate" were irretrievably defaced.

[13] Robert Buchanan, The Life of Audubon ([Bibl. No. 72]), p. vi.

[14] See Harriet Jay, Robert Buchanan: Some Account of His Life, His Life's Work, and His Literary Friendships (London, 1903). Robert Williams Buchanan was born at Caverswell, Lancashire, August 18, 1841, and died in London, June 10, 1901.

[15] For similar spelling of the name by John James Audubon, see [Appendix I, Document No. 12].

[16] For notice of these records of Jean Audubon and his family, see [the Preface], and for the most important documents, [Appendix I].

[17] Pierre Audubon's service in the merchant marine of France is undoubtedly recorded in the archives of the Department of Marine in Paris, but all researches in that direction were suddenly halted by the war.

[18] Jean Audubon had a brother Claude, and on February 27, 1791, he wrote to him, asking for 4,000 francs, which he needed for the purchase of a boat. It was probably this brother who lived at Bayonne, and left three daughters, Anne, Dominica, and Catherine Françoise, who married Jean Louis Lissabé, a pilot (see [Vol. I, p. 263]). If this inference be correct, and the sum referred to was demanded in payment of a debt, it may explain a statement of the naturalist that his father and his uncle were not on speaking terms.

Another brother is said to have been an active politician at Nantes, La Rochelle and Paris from 1771 to 1796, when he dropped out of sight for a number of years. When heard of again he was living at La Rochelle in affluence and piety. This was apparently the Audubon to whom the naturalist referred in certain of his journals and private letters as one who, possessing the secret of his birth and early life, had done both him and his father an irreparable injury (see [Vol. I, p. 270]).

A sister, Marie Rosa Audubon, was married in 1794 to Pierre de Vaugeon, a lawyer at Nantes; their only son, Louis Lejeune de Vaugeon, was living at Nantes as late as 1822, when he deeded his former home to Henri Boutard. (The substance of this and the preceding paragraph is based partly upon data furnished by Miss Maria R. Audubon.)

Jean Audubon gave his daughter, Rosa, the name of her aunt, but in later life seems to have broken off all relations with his brothers. Upon his death his will was immediately attacked by Mme. Lejeune de Vaugeon, of Nantes, and by the three nieces from Bayonne (see [Chapter XVII]). The naturalist does not give the name of the aunt who, as he said, was killed during the Revolution at Nantes, but I have found no reference to any other.

[19] This was recalled by the naturalist on March 5, 1827, when he wrote: "As a lad I had a great aversion to anything English or Scotch, and I remember when travelling with my father to Rochefort in January, 1800, I mentioned this to him.... How well I remember his reply.... 'Thy blood will cool in time, and thou wilt be surprised to see how gradually prejudices are obliterated, and friendships acquired, towards those that we at one time held in contempt. Thou hast not been in England; I have, and it is a fine country.'" (See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 216).

[20] In 1789 over 7,000,000 pounds of cotton and 758,628 pounds of indigo were exported from the French side of the island, while further products of that year, including smaller amounts of cocoa, molasses, rum, hides, dye-woods, and tortoise shell, swelled the grand total of exports to 205,000,000 livres or francs. Bryan Edwards, however, whose deductions were based on official returns, placed the average value of all exports from French Santo Domingo for the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, at 171,544,000 livres in Hispaniola currency, or £4,765,129 sterling; this would be equivalent to about $23,158,426, and imply a purchase value of the French livre or franc of about 13½ cents in American money.

The number of plantations of every kind in the French colony was estimated by Edwards in 1790, at the outbreak of the Revolution, at 8,536; there were over 800 sugar plantations, over 3,000 coffee estates, to mention two such resources. If to these items we add nearly half a million slaves, the total valuation of the movable and fixed property of the French planters and merchants of this period would reach 1,557,870,000 francs. In 1788, 98 slave ships entered the six principal ports on the French side, and landed 29,506 negroes; Les Cayes received 19 of these ships, which delivered at that port 4,590 blacks. These slaves were sold for 61,936,190 livres, or at the rate of 2,008.37 livres each; according to Edwards this was equivalent to £60 sterling, or to about $291.60 in American money, at the rate of 14½ cents to the livre or franc. See particularly Francis Alexander Stanilaus, Baron de Wimpffen, A Voyage to Santo Domingo in the Years 1788, 1789, and 1790, translated by J. Wright (London, 1817); and also Bryan Edwards, An Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of San Domingo (London, 1797).

[21] As signed by herself, but variously spelled "Moinet," or "Moynette" in family documents of the period. On August 28, four days after their marriage, they drew up and signed a mutual contract regarding the disposition of their property in case children should be born to them.

[22] The destruction of Le Comte d'Artois is noticed in a document bearing date of January 19, 1782; the name of the town only is given, but it is probable that it refers to the United States.

[23] For repeated reference to this unsettled claim, see his letter of 1805 to Francis Dacosta ([Chapter VIII]), where the name is written "Formont."

The bill of sale of Le Comte d'Artois was drawn on February 21, 1779, when Jean Audubon appeared "before the notaries of the king in the seneschal's court of Saint Louis," and was described as "resident at Les Cayes, opposite the Isle à Vaches." The document, which in my copy is incomplete, reads in part as follows:

"The present M. Jean Audubon, captain-commander of the ship Le Comte d'Artois, of Nantes, armed for war and now laden with merchandise, anchored in this roadstead of Les Cayes, dispatched, and at the point of departure for France; armed by the Messrs. Coirond Brothers, merchants at the said city of Nantes, acting in his own name as one interested in the armament and cargo of the vessel, as well as in his capacity as captain; [he] acting as much also for the said furnishers of arms as for the others interested in the said armaments, and the merchandise, which will be hereafter mentioned, in consideration of the rights of each, promises to have these presents accepted and approved in due time; which said person, appearing in said names, in the quality aforesaid, by these presents has sold, ceded, given up, transferred, and relinquished all his legal rights in the aforesaid ship, to the business-associates Lacroix, Formon de Boisclair & Jacques, three merchants in partnership, living in this town, purchasers conjointly and severally, for themselves and the assigns of each, to the extent of one third; To wit: the said ship Le Comte d'Artois, of the said port of Nantes, of about two hundred and fifty tons, at present anchored in this roadstead of Les Cayes, dispatched, and at the point of departure for France, with all its rigging, outfit, and dependences, which consist among other things of two sets of sail, complete, and newly fitted out, all the tools, and the reserve sets of these, with the munitions of war, consisting of ten cannon, four of them mounted on gun carriages, and all that goes with them...." (Translated from the French original in possession of Monsieur Lavigne.)

[24] The fact that Captain Audubon did not accompany Rochambeau's fleet which assembled at Brest in April, 1780, and reached Newport in mid-July, may account for the omission of his name from the lists that have been recently published. See Les Combattants François de la Guerre Américaine, 1778-1783 (Paris, 1903).

[25] Others interested in this vessel were Messrs. David Ross & Company, with whom Captain Audubon later had financial difficulties (see [Chapter VIII]).

[26] See letter to Dacosta, [Vol. I, p. 121].

[27] The proper name of this seaport town, as given by all French cartographers and writers, is Les Cayes, meaning "the cays" or "keys" (small islands, Spanish cayos); omitting the article it is often simply written "Cayes." French residents on the island, however, when dating or addressing a letter or receipting a bill would naturally write "aux Cayes," meaning of course "at The Cays," where the document was signed or where the person to whom the letter was addressed resided (see the Sanson bill, and bills of sale of negroes, [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 1], [4], [5], and [6]). It was thus an easy step for Englishmen, in ignorance or disregard of the French usage, to call the town "Aux Cayes"; even as early as 1797, Bryan Edwards, though giving the name correctly on his map, which doubtless had a French source, wrote "Aux Cayes" in his text; the corruption has survived, and is occasionally found in standard works, but is too egregious to be tolerated.

[28] And sometime as marchand, more strictly a retailer.

[29] Since a colonist's wealth was estimated upon the number of slaves he could afford, and since a slave was regarded as equivalent to a return of 1,500 francs a year, Jean Audubon's income on this basis would have been 63,000 francs.

[30] See Sir Spencer St. John, Hayti, or the Black Republic, 2d ed. (New York, 1889).

[31] Bryan Edwards, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., &c., An Historical Survey of the French Colony in the Island of San Domingo (London, 1797).

[32] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 31].

[33] The Superior Council, sitting at Port-au-Prince, in 1780 fixed the tax for the parish of Les Cayes at the rate of 2 francs, 10 centimes per head, which in this instance was certainly trifling. (Note furnished by M. L. Lavigne.)

[34] Baron de Wimpffen sailed from Port-au-Prince for Norfolk, Virginia, in July, 1790, about a year after Jean Audubon had left the island.

[35] This was one of the commonest names among the French Creoles of Santo Domingo, and was possibly assumed, though the evidence is inconclusive. See [Vol. I, p. 61].

[36] For photographic reproduction see [p. 54]; and for transliteration and translation, [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 1] and [1a]; for "Fougère" see [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 2] and [3]; and for "Jean Rabin," [Documents Nos. 14], [16], [17] and [18].

[37] The word "Joue," which occurs eleven times in this document—as "mulatto Joue," "Joue mulatto," "negro bossal named Joue," and "little negro Joue"—suggests the English equivalent "Cheek," but no such usage appears to be authorized. It is evidently a proper name, and is more likely to prove the French rendering of a word common to one of the negro dialects of the island. On the other hand it might represent a corrupted pet name, like "joujou" or "bijou," bestowed by the French Creoles of Santo Domingo upon their favorite négrillons or petits nègres, which played a more or less ornamental rôle in many households, whether as footmen or servants. In any case the use of this word is doubtless purely local.

[38] See [Vol. I, p. 46].

[39] It was stated in the act of adoption, which was drawn up in March, 1794, that Audubon's mother had then been dead "about eight years," and the testimony of the Sanson bill shows that she was alive as late as October, 1785.

[40] The following letter of inquiry concerning Louise was written by Rosa's husband when Jean Audubon's will was being attacked in the courts at Nantes. It is dated at Couëron, June 26, 1819, and is addressed to "Monsieur Carpentier Chessé, engraver, place Royale, Nantes:"

"Following the friendly offer that you made me, I have the honor of asking you to undertake, at your next visit to La Rochelle, the following inquiries:

"1. There should be at La Rochelle (it is thought at the home of the widow Scipiot) a Miss Louise Bouffard, born at Les Cayes, Santo Domingo, in America.

"What is her position? What is she doing? What is her conduct? In short I should like to know absolutely all about her, being charged by the Madame, her mother, to make all inquiries."

(Translated from original in French, Lavigne MSS.)

[41] A principal street in the old quarters of Nantes, leading from the Place Royale to Place Graslin. Jean Audubon named this street as his place of residence in 1792, when he was living in a house belonging to Citizen Carricoule. He made his home also at No. 39, rue Rubens, a short street, with many of its houses still intact, in the same quarter; this was rented of Françoise Mocquard for five years, beginning June 24, 1799 (le 6 Messidor, an 7), at four hundred francs per annum. He also dwelt at various times at No. 5, rue de Gigant, and in the rue des Carmes, where his wife possessed a house, as well as in the rue des Fontenelles and the rue Saint-Leonard. Very likely "La Gerbetière" at Couëron was occupied intermittently, especially in summer, after the outbreak of the Revolution and his reverses in fortune; even after his retirement there in 1801, he still kept a lodging (pied-à-terre) at Nantes, where, as it chanced, he died, though it was not his usual stopping-place. See [Note, Vol. I, p. 86].

[42] See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 8.

[43] For the original text of this act, here given in translation, see [Appendix I, Document No. 2].

[44] Research at Nantes in 1915 revealed that the baptismal records of the parish of Saint-Similien were wanting for the period from 1792 to 1803, so it is probable that they were destroyed in the Revolution. The municipal archives of Nantes possess a book of baptismal records of the city without distinction of parishes, but this shows the names of neither "Fougère," "Rabin," nor "Audubon," for the year in question.

The Abbè Tardiveau was un prêtre assermenté, or one of those priests who had sworn in 1790 to recognize the civil constitution of the clergy.

For copy of the act of baptism in the French original, see [Appendix I, Document No. 3]. It is impossible to say whether the heading as given in my copy of this act was in the original or not.

[45] An English writer once gave the name of Audubon's mother as Mlle. La Forêt.

[46] Audubon's signature underwent frequent variations during the first twenty-five years of his life, but after 1820 he almost invariably signed himself "John J.," or "J. J. Audubon." In the record of the civil marriage of his sister, at Couëron in 1805, his name appears as "J. J. L. Audubon;" in the "Articles of Association" with Ferdinand Rozier, signed at Nantes in 1806, it is "Jean Audubon," and in the release given on the dissolution of this partnership, at Ste. Geneviève, in 1811, the English form, "John Audubon," appears.

[47] This statement was made to me by Miss Maria R. Audubon in 1914.

[48] For full text of the six wills drawn at different times by Jean Audubon and his wife see [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 13]-[18].

[49] See [Chapter XVII].

[50] This unique document reads as follows:

"To all to whom these presents may come: know ye that I, John Audubon, having special trust and confidence in my friend, G. Loyen Du Puigaudeau, of the Department of Loire and [sic] Inférieure, and Parish of Couëron, near Nantes, in the kingdom of France, [do constitute him] my true and lawful attorney, and the true and lawful attorney in fact of Jean Rabin, husband of Lucy Bakewell, of the County of Henderson and State of Kentucky, in the United States of America, for us [?], the said Jean Rabin, and in our name to our use and benefit, to ask, demand, sue for, recover, and receive all and every part of the Real and Personal Estate, that is to say Lands, Tenements, Grounds, Chattels, and credits, which I have, or either of us, in the Department of Loire and [sic] Inferieure in the kingdom of France, aforesaid, and to make sale of the same, either at auction, or by contract of the said Lands and Tenements, Goods, Chattells, and Credits, to receive the money arising from said sale, to give any Receipt, acquittance, or other discharge for the said money or any part thereof, if money or specie shall be received, or for any property he may receive in exchange or barter for said Real and personal Estate, and our said attorney, or the attorney of Jean Rabin aforesaid, is hereby authorized and empowered to make, give, execute, and deliver any Deed, Covenant, or transfer of said Real and Personal Estate to the purchaser of all or any part thereof for us, or for the said Jean Rabin, in as full and ample a manner as he, the said Jean, could do, was he personally present in said Department, in the Kingdom. In testimony whereof the said John Audubon has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal the Twenty Sixth day of July, Anno Domini One thousand & Eight hundred and Seventeen.

John J. Audubon [Seal within]

On the back of the preceding is the notary's certificate that Jean Audubon appeared before him; seal affixed, and dated July 26, 1817.

Signed, "A[mbroze] Barband,
Notary of Henderson County, Kentucky."

[51] See [Chapter XVI].

[52] Vol. i, p. v; see [Bibliography, No. 2].

[53] Published by Maria R. Audubon ([Bibl. No. 78]) in Scribner's Magazine, vol. xiii (1893).

[54] Whether Jean Audubon had other sons born in Santo Domingo is not recorded, and this reference of the naturalist, which was repeated in his later sketch, cannot be verified.

[55] See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals, ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 7.

[56] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 38].

[57] See J. W. Crozart, "Bibliographical and Genealogical Notes Concerning the Family of Philippe de Mandeville, Ecuyer Sieur de Marigny, 1709-1800," Louisiana Historical Society Publications, vol. v (New Orleans, 1911). The portrait referred to below now hangs in the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, New Orleans.

[58] Gordon Bakewell ([Bibl. No. 90]), ibid., p. 31.

[59] See Laws of the United States, Treaties, Regulations, and Other Documents Respecting the Public Lands, vol. i, p. 301 (Washington, 1836). In Number 756, entitled "An Act for the Relief of Bernard Marigny, of the State of Louisiana," Marigny is mentioned as assignee of Antonio Bonnabel, and his claim, which was confirmed, is described as follows: a tract of land of 4,020 superficial arpents, in the State of Louisiana, parish of St. Tammany, "bounded on the southwest by Lake Ponchartrain, and on the northwest by lands formerly owned by the heirs of Lewis Davis."

I am informed by Mr. Gaspar Cusachs, president of the Historical Society of Louisiana, who has carefully investigated the titles of this property and to whom I am indebted for much information concerning it and its owners, that the tract described above included the estate of "Fontainebleau." Marigny's claim included also a smaller tract of 774 arpents in the same parish. This land was bounded on the southwest by Lake Ponchartrain, on the north by Castin Bayou, and on the south by the tract acquired from Bonnabel; it was granted to the heirs of Lewis Davis in 1777, and certain of them filed a claim for it in 1812.

[60] One period of this service bears date of May 31.

[61] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 27].

[62] The mayor, Saget, at the moment he was crossing the Place Egalité (the Place Royale of today) received point-blank a ball in his right thigh and another in his left leg, and lost both limbs.

[63] For the revolutionary history of Nantes I am chiefly indebted to M. A. Guépin's excellent Histoire de Nantes, 2d ed. (Nantes, 1839); Hipp. Etiennez, Guide du Voyageur à Nantes, et aux Environs (Nantes, 1861); A. Lescadien et Aug. Laurent, Histoire de la Ville de Nantes, t.2 (Nantes, 1836); F. J. Verger, Archives curieuses de la Ville de Nantes et des Départments de l'Ouest, t. 5 (Nantes, 1837-41); and to a scholarly monograph by Dugast-Matifeux, entitled Carrier à Nantes: Précis de la Conduite patriotique et révolutionnaire des citoyens de Nantes (Nantes, 1885).

[64] The unpublished documents of this Department are preserved in the archives of the Préfecture at Nantes, and through the courtesy of their custodians I was enabled to examine them freely. These documents deal with all the revolutionary changes in church and state consequent upon the breaking down of the old régime, and with the enrollment of volunteers and the dispatch of armed forces to centers of disturbance throughout that district. The present manuscripts are said to represent but a fraction of those which originally existed, the archives having been subjected to repeated raids, thefts, and wanton destruction by fire and other means. The most important have been listed and published by the Government in summary form under the title, Les Archives du Département de la Loire Inférieure, 1790-1799, Série L. (Nantes, 1909).

[65] During the Revolution Jean Audubon always added to his signature the cabalistic sign of three dots between parallel lines, which possibly stood for the three watchwords of the Republic—"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité."

[66] In the published orders and correspondence of the royalist General Boulart the following letter, given here in translation, is addressed to Citizen Audubon: "I give you notice, Citizen, that my aide-de-camp will arrive immediately from Niort. I beg you to do all in your power to come this evening to confer with me, since I have something to ask you of the utmost importance. I also inform you that there has arrived at Les Sables Citizen Anguis, the people's representative. Perhaps it would be more advantageous that you should see him this evening, and that tomorrow early we attempt to bring all three together. You could depart in the morning for Nantes." [Signed] "The General Boulart." Jean Audubon filed this letter from the enemy with his Department, but his answer is not given. See Ch. L. Chassin, Etudes Documentaires sur La Révolution Française: La Vendée Patriote, 1793-1800, vol. ii, p. 306, t. 1-4 (Paris, 1894-1895).

[67] Délibérations-Arrêtés de Directoire du Département. In MSS. pp. 107-108.

[68] Jean was actually in command of this war vessel in March of that year, as shown by a document given in full in [Chapter IV (p. 59)].

[69] These records are on file in the archives of the Department of Marine at Paris, but access to them will doubtless be denied until peace is restored in Europe.

[70] M. L. Lavigne writes that he possesses a copy of a letter addressed by M. G. L. du Puigaudeau to a lawyer in Paris, in which it is stated that Lieutenant Audubon's losses amounted to 1,500,000 francs. After making due allowance for the psychological tendency to overestimate losses, especially when sustained in remote and romantic lands, the true amount was no doubt large.

[71] Or "lieutenant of a frigate," and corresponding to "mate" in the merchant marine.

[72]The certificate which Lieutenant Audubon received at the time of his discharge is preserved among the Lavigne manuscripts and documents at Couëron, and is headed:

Port de Rochefort.

ETAT des Services du Citoyen Jean Audubon natif des Sables d'Ollonne Département de La Vendée âgé de 58 ans.

It is signed by the Chief of Administration, Daniel, the Naval Commander-in-Chief of the District, Martin, and by the naval commissioner and clerk, February 26, 1801 (le sept Ventose, an 9 de la République).

[73] Jean Audubon was 11 years, 6 months and 25 days in the service of the merchant marine of France (service au commerce), in the course of which he rose to the rank of captain of the first grade in 1774. He served in the French navy (service à l'état) 8 years, 2 months and 17 days, ranking successively as sailor, ensign-commander, and lieutenant-commander (lieutenant de vaisseau); 8 months and 22 days of this period (1768-1769) were in intervals of peace, and 7 years, 5 months and 25 days (1793-1801), in times of war. Any conflict which may seem to occur in titles must be attributed to this double service.

[74] This property was evidently encumbered to a considerable extent, for he repeatedly filed with the Department letters for the removal of restrictions placed upon it (lettres pour obtenir la main levée). I cannot give the dates of these letters, but believe that they were drawn in 1801 or shortly after.

[75] This house was rented at the time to Françoise Mocquard (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 57]), but it is probable that Lieutenant Audubon had reserved rooms which were occupied during his visits to the city while his permanent home was at Couëron. In the power of attorney issued by Jean Audubon, his wife, and Claude François Rozier, at Nantes, April 4, 1806, the senior Audubon gave his residence as "rue Rubens, No. 39."

[76] Presumably a widow of one of the Coyrons (or Coironds), merchants at Nantes, whose business interests in Santo Domingo were entrusted to Jean Audubon's hands in 1783 (see [Chapter III, p. 38]).

[77] The following extract from the registry of deaths at Nantes, which is here given in translation, indicates that Lieutenant Audubon passed away suddenly, since his death did not occur in his own apartments (for original see [Appendix I, Document No. 19]):

"In the year 1818, on the 19th day of February, at eleven o'clock in the morning, in the presence of the undersigned, deputies and officers of the civil service, delegates of Monsieur the Mayor of Nantes, have appeared the Messrs. Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, gentleman of leisure, son-in-law of the deceased, residing hereafter at Couëron, and Francis Guillet, grocer, living on the Quai de la Fosse, of legal age, who have certified in our presence that on this day, at six o'clock in the morning, Jean Audubon, retired ship-captain, pensioner of the State, born at Les Sables d'Olonne, department of La Vendée, husband of Anne Moinet, died in the house of Mlle. Berthier, in the Chaussée de le Madeleine, No. 24, 4th Canton.

"The witnesses have signed with us the present act, after it was read to them. The deceased was 74 years of age."

"Signed in the register:-	{ Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau,
	{ Guillet, and Joseph de la
	{ Tullaye, deputy

The Audubons and Du Puigaudeaus were probably buried in one of the large cemeteries at Nantes, since no trace of their graves has been found at Couëron by M. Lavigne.

[78] Audubon said that he was at the time fourteen years old, which could not have been the case, but when writing in 1835 he placed this experience at shortly before his return to America, which would have been in the winter of 1805-6; "I underwent," to quote this later account, "a mockery of an examination, and was received as a midshipman in the navy, went to Rochefort, was placed on board a man-of-war, and ran a short cruise. On my return, my father had in some way obtained passports for Rozier and me, and we sailed for New York."

[79] Audubon, writing in 1820, described himself at this time as "a young man of seventeen, sent to America to make money (for such was my father's wish), brought up in France in easy circumstances;" but in the same journal he said that he did not reach Philadelphia until three months after landing, and that "shortly after" his arrival at "Mill Grove" the Bakewell family moved to "Fatland Ford." Mr. G. W. Bakewell, the historian of his family, states that in the spring of 1804, William Bakewell, Audubon's future father-in-law, with his son, Thomas, traveled through Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland in search of a farm; they purchased "Fatland Ford," which was then the property of James Vaux. Audubon's account of the Pewee (Ornithological Biography, vol. ii, p. 124) shows that he was at "Mill Grove" before April 10, when "the ground was still partially covered with snow, and the air retained the piercing chill of winter." If these various statements are correct, they would indicate that Audubon left Nantes about the middle of November, 1803, and that he finally reached "Mill Grove" not far from the end of March, 1804. On the other hand, Mr. W. H. Wetherill, the present owner of "Mill Grove," informs me that his records indicate that the Bakewells occupied "Fatland Ford" in January, 1804. If this were the case, young Audubon could not have left France later than August, 1803. Too much weight, however, should not be attached to such references of a biographical character in Audubon's own writings; for in the account referred to above Audubon said that after his first visit to the United States he remained two years in France and returned to America "early in August;" while we know that his sojourn in France lasted but little more than a year and that he landed in New York on the 28th of May.

[80] A plague of genuine yellow fever had visited New York in 1795, but in 1804 and 1805 the city suffered from a malignant fever of another type, and to such an extent that 27,000 persons, or one-third of the entire population, are said to have fled to escape the pestilence. This was possibly the malady which seized young Audubon not far from the beginning of the former year.

[81] The rough draft of a letter in English, evidently written by Lieutenant Audubon to be delivered by his son to the ship's captain, and probably in duplicate to his agent, Miers Fisher, but bearing no name or date, (Lavigne MSS.)

[82] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 98].

[83] The yearly rent of "Mill Grove" in 1804, according to the accounts of Francis Dacosta, who had then acquired a half interest in it, amounted to $353.34.

[84] "Mill Grove" farm is in Montgomery County, twenty-four miles northwest of Philadelphia, in the town known, after 1823, as Shannonville, but in 1899 rechristened "Audubon;" Norristown is five miles to the east.

[85] Mr. William H. Wetherill of Philadelphia, whose hospitality I have enjoyed and to whom I am indebted for many interesting facts and records pertaining to "Mill Grove." Samuel Wetherill, Mr. W. H. Wetherill's grandfather, was one of the first to bring "black rock," or coal, from Reading to Philadelphia. Samuel Wetherill, Junior, who is said to have started the first woolen mill in the country and to have produced the first white lead made in the United States, purchased "Mill Grove" for the sake of its minerals in 1813, the war having put a stop to all importations from England at that time. He actually succeeded in extracting several hundred tons of lead from the "Mill Grove" mines, doing better, it is thought, than any who preceded or followed him. Samuel Wetherill, Junior, died in 1829, and was succeeded in the lead and drugs industry by his four sons, of whom Samuel Price Wetherill became the owner of "Mill Grove" in 1833. The farm remained in the hands of the Wetherill family until 1876, and returned to them again, when the present owner came into possession, in 1892.

[86] In 1761 James Morgan, the first miller and builder, conveyed one-half of the mill site of five acres to Roland Evans, who came into possession of the other half, with the adjoining farm, in 1771; the property was sold to Governor John Penn in 1776; it passed to Samuel C. Morris in 1784, and to the Prevosts in 1786.

[87] The lease, which was drawn up in English, April 10, 1789, reads in part as follows: "This indenture, made on the tenth Day of April in the Year of our Lord, One thousand Seven hundred & Eighty nine, Between John Audubon, of the Island of St. Domingo, Gentleman, now being in the City of Philadelphia, of the one party, and Augustine Prevost...." The lease included the messuages, grist mills, saw mills, plantation and tract of land, which is described, tools, implements, stock, and furniture of the mills and farm, and was drawn for one year; it was signed in the presence of Miers Fisher, agent and attorney for Jean Audubon.

In the inventory were included one windmill, one pair of scales, with weights of 56, 28 and 7 pounds, "skreen," four bolting cloths, two hoisting tubs, and one large screw and circle for raising the millstones. This lease was renewed in October, 1790, when Jean Audubon, who was then living at Nantes, agreed to keep the house in good repair from that time onward. It was the Prevost mortgage that Miers Fisher paid but forgot to cancel (see [Vol. I, p. 122]); it was finally cleared up by Dacosta in October, 1806.

Miers Fisher's Philadelphia residence, called "Ury," which Audubon often visited, was near Fox Chase, now in the Twenty-third Ward. See Witmer Stone, Cassinia, No. xvii (Philadelphia, 1913).

[88] For a photograph of this portrait of Lieutenant Audubon [here reproduced], I am indebted to Miss Maria R. Audubon; the originals of both portraits are now in possession of Audubon's granddaughter, Mrs. Morris F. Tyler.

[89] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 99].

[90] For this and the preceding quotation, see Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, pp. 18 and 27.

[91] In Dacosta's final statement of his account, which was disputed, carried into court, and eventually settled by arbitration at Philadelphia, on August 1, 1807, these items occur: "Omitted, $300.00, paid by Francis Dacosta to Miers Fisher, on May 24, 1803;" and "Ditto $176.67, the proportion of Francis Dacosta in the rent of the first year, which has not been paid to him." (See [Appendix I, Document 11a]; MSS. in possession of Mr. Welton A. Rosier.)

It seems probable that Dacosta was sent to this country by Lieutenant Audubon to act as his agent for the disposition of "Mill Grove," and to succeed Miers Fisher in the conduct of his business affairs. Interest in the neglected and forgotten mine may have diverted them from their original plans.

[92] The following notice, copied from Relf's Gazette, appeared in the New York Herald for Saturday, November 17, 1804:

"The lead mine discovered on Perkiomen creek, in Montgomery county, Pennsylvania, the property of Francis Dacosta, has been lately opened, and attended with great success. The vein proves to be a regular one, and of long continuance. Its course is N.N.E.; its direction is nearly perpendicular, and its thickness from one foot to 15 inches. Two tons of that beautiful ore were raised in a few hours, and one ton more at least was left in the bottom on the pit, which is yet but nine feet deep. From the situation of this mine, its nearness to navigation and market, its very commanding height, its richness in metal, and the large scale it forms on; it is thought by judges to be one of the first discoveries yet made in the U. S.

"From the analysis made of 100 parts, it contains:

Oxyd of lead	85
Oxyd of iron	1
Sulphuric acid	13
Water	1
	100

"The lead being coupelled, has proved to contain 2½ oz. fine silver to 100, which is nearly 3 dollars worth of that metal."

[93] For the sum of 31,000 francs, or $6,200, a slight advance on the cost to Jean Audubon, when he had taken over the farm fifteen years before (see [Vol. I, p. 105]).

[94] The following item appears in Dacosta's final account: "To compensation claimed by Francis Dacosta for making up half of his expenses, in managing the mining works, the mill-repairs, and taking up the formation of a company during two years of constant cares, troubles, and loss of time, at 300 dollars a year—$600.00." (From statement of disputed claim; see [Note, Vol. I, p. 168].)

[95] For copies of a part of the Audubon-Dacosta correspondence, which is perhaps half of what exists but all that it was possible to obtain, I am indebted to Monsieur Lavigne. The first letter, the present copy of which is incomplete, was evidently written in the winter of 1804-5. Lieutenant Audubon, who at this time was sixty-one years old, was living at Couëron, but came to Nantes to conduct his correspondence. All the letters were carefully transcribed in a separate copybook, and are here translated as literally as possible from the French.

[96] That is, after having become a part owner of the "Mill Grove" property.

[97] That is, at Couëron.

[98] This name appears as "Rost" in all the letters.

[99] Member of the firm of Audubon, Lacroix, Formon & Jacques, engaged in the Santo Domingo trade (see [Chapter II, p. 33]). In these letters the name usually appears as "Formont."

[100] Vessels in which Jean Audubon was personally interested, and upon which he endeavored in vain to collect the money and interest due him (see [Vol. I, p. 34]). In a document in English, dated [Les Cayes] April 9, 1782, concerning the Annette, of which Jean Audubon was captain and part owner, and signed by him and David Ross & Company, it is stated this vessel was bound for Nantes with a cargo of tobacco, in the purchase and sale of which Captain Audubon was under orders of Mr. Ezekiel Edwards of Nantes.

[101] This was probably the mortgage which Jean Audubon gave to Prevost when "Mill Grove" was purchased in 1789, for in Dacosta's final account for 1806-1807 this item occurs under October 15, 1806: "To the recorder in Norristown for entering satisfaction of John Audubon mortgage to John Augustin Prevost ... $2.83."

[102] The principal house at "Mill Grove," which Dacosta was preparing to occupy.

[103] Owing to the delay in receiving his legal papers from France, Dacosta had threatened to carry his case to the courts, and had stopped work at the mine.

[104] In the light of the preceding letters, Dacosta would appear in these respects to have been only attempting to carry out his instructions.

[105] Probably Sarah White Palmer, Benjamin Bakewell's sister-in-law, and widow of the Rev. John Palmer, who at one time was associated with Joseph Priestley in editing the Theological Repository, an organ of the Unitarians. Her son-in-law, Thomas W. Pears, was later a partner in Audubon's business ventures at Henderson, Kentucky. Her grave is in the Bakewell burying plot at "Fatland Ford."

[106] See [Appendix I, Document No. 7].

[107] Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 39.

[108] Dr. d'Orbigny had three sons, all of whom were born in Couëron: Alcide Charles Victor in 1802, Gaston Edouard in 1805, and Charles in 1806; the youngest and eldest became distinguished naturalists. So far as known, Audubon was godfather only to the second, Gaston Edouard, who according to the records of the Catholic church at Couëron, "was born on the 3d day of the present [month], the issue of the legitimate marriage of Mr. Charles Marie d'Orbigny, doctor of medicine, and of Anna Pepart," was christened on August 20, 1805, in the presence of the godfather, John James Audubon, the godmother, Rosa Audubon, the father and mother, together with the "undersigned" (Extracted by Monsieur Lavigne). D'Orbigny appears as a witness to the powers of attorney which Jean Audubon and his wife issued jointly to their son and to Ferdinand Rozier at Couëron in 1805 (see [Appendix I, Document No. 8]) and on November 20, 1806 (see [Vol. I, p. 153]).

[109] For copies of this and the following letters, which are here translated from the French, I am indebted to Monsieur Lavigne.

[110] A daughter of Catharine Bouffard, regarding whom see [Vol. I, p. 56].

[111] See [Appendix I, Document No. 8].

[112] The civil ceremony of Rosa Audubon's marriage was performed at the mayor's office in Couëron, on December 16, 1805 (le 26 frimaire, an 14), when the bride was in her eighteenth year; the contract had been drawn on the 12th day of that month (le 22 frimaire, an 14) by notary Martin Daviais, who was mayor of Couëron in the following year, and the religious ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of Nantes. "The following have assisted," so reads in translation the Couëron record, "at the marriage, aforesaid, on the side of the groom, M. André Loyen du Puigaudeau, his brother, and M. Honoré François Guiraud, his brother-in-law; by the side of the bride, her father, and M. Jean Audubon, her brother, [and these have] undersigned, together with the bridegroom." Audubon's signature reads "J. L. J. Audubon."

[113] For the full text of these two documents, which are so interesting for our story, see [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 9] and [10]; and for translations, Documents Nos. 9a and 10a. For the privilege of examining and reproducing the first of these papers I am indebted to Mr. Charles A. Rozier, of St. Louis, and for the second, as well as the power of attorney of 1805 (see [Document No. 8]), referred to earlier, to Mr. Tom J. Rozier, of Sainte Geneviève, Missouri. In the case of this second warrant it will be noticed that the grantors signed only the minute which was filed with the notaries, who, with the judge of the Court of the First Instance, affixed their names to the document itself. No better illustration could be given of the dignity which the French attach to the office of notary, to the honored incumbents of which their private affairs are unreservedly entrusted, than this elaborate judicial document.

[114] In the register of the Central Committee of Nantes it is noted, under date of October 4, 1793, that "owing to the friendly relations then existing between France and the citizens of the United States, and to the good feeling evinced by them in sending to us for food, four American ships are accordingly permitted to leave the port of Nantes, with cargoes of wine, sugar, and coffee, and also to take enough biscuit for the voyage."

[115] The receipt which the captain handed the young men, and which the methodical Rozier preserved, remains as a souvenir of this voyage (in the Tom J. Rozier MSS); it reads as follows:

Recvd. from Mr. John Audubon & ferdinand Rozier the sum of five Hundred and twenty five Livers being in full for their passage from Nantes to New York in the Ship Polly........................... S. Sammis

[In Rozier's (?) handwriting] New York May 28, 1806

[Indorsed by Rozier on back] Payé le 11 avril 1806

[116] The total population of Couëron, as given in the official directory for 1913, was 2,035, but the total working population is probably three times as great.

[117] There is also the grand calvaire, which stands on an eminence in the village. This was erected in 1825 on the foundations of the chateau of the dukes of Brittany, the last of whom, Francis II, died at Couëron in 1488. His tomb is in the nave of the cathedral at Nantes; the grand calvaire was restored by two Couëron families in 1873, and is a very elaborate structure.

[118] Mr. William Beer, who paid a visit to "La Gerbetière" with Dr. Louis Bureau in 1910, writes me that the woodwork was poor in quality, and that all the rooms had been altered in size and appearance.

[119] But not related to M. L. Lavigne, to whom I am indebted for extracts from the deed, a translation of which is given below, as well as for many other references.

[120] That is, the landlord to receive one-half the produce.

[121] A "journal" of land being as much as a man could cultivate in a day's labor.

[122] See [Chapter XVII].

[123] For the privilege of examining Ferdinand Rozier's copy of their "Articles of Association" I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Charles A. Rozier, of Saint Louis. This is written on three sides of hand-made, hand-ruled Government linen, small letter size, with printed revenue stamp (50 centimes) of the French Republic at top, and stamped with the seal of the Department of Registration and Stamps ("ADM. DES DOM. DE L'ENREG. ET DU TIMBRE REP. FRA.—Administration des domaines de l'enregistrement et du timbre, République Française"). The signature of "Jean Audubon" bears a close resemblance to that of the father, Lieutenant Jean Audubon, who was undoubtedly the author of the document. For the "Articles" in full, in French and English, see [Appendix I, Documents Nos. 9] and [9a].

[124] Among the elder Rozier's papers was part of an old letterbook belonging to his son; it is written in French, and labeled "Correspondence of Ferdinand Rozier." On one of the four sheets preserved this item occurs: "4 July, 1806, Philadelphia; record of an agreement with Mr. Dacosta proprietor of one half of the Mill Grove farm,—at least of the value of sale." The first entry is dated "19 février—1806, New York," which, if correct, would imply that Rozier spent two years instead of one in the United States when he visited this country in 1804 (or came a second time), and that he returned, with young Audubon, almost immediately after reaching France (see [Vol. I, p. 245]); the last record is "August, 1807, New York." (MS. in possession of Dr. Louis Bureau, Nantes.)

[125] According to the records of Montgomery County, as collated for Mr. W. H. Wetherill, the remaining half interest in "Mill Grove" was sold by J. J. Audubon (and Ferdinand Rozier) to Francis Dacosta & Company, for a consideration of $9,640.33. The business was conducted mainly by Rozier, acting under the advice of their friend, Miers Fisher.

[126] Translated from the French of Ferdinand's copy, in possession of Mr. Welton A. Rozier, to whom I am indebted for the privilege of reproducing it.

[127] "Gourdes," that is, piasters or Spanish dollars.

[128] Claude François Rozier, at this time an aged man, died at Nantes on September 7, 1807; he had two sons and six daughters, of whom Ferdinand was the second son and the fifth child; his wife, Renée Angelique Colas, died at Nantes, February 9, 1824.

[129] This was issued, so the letter reads, to "their son, John Audubon, and Ferdinand Rozier, both of the said city of Philadelphia, Gentlemen," by "John Audubon, late of the city of Philadelphia, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, now residing in the commune of Couëron, near the city of Nantes in France, Gentleman, and Anne Moynette, his wife," to apply to all lands and other property belonging to them in the United States, with the power to "raise or borrow money on the whole or any part or parts of the said lands, tenements, or hereditaments, to secure the repayment of said monies by bond, warrant of attorney, to contest judgment of the mortgage of the said lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any part or parts thereof...." Written in French and English; signed by Jean Audubon, Anne Moynet, his wife, by Doctors Chapelain and C. d'Orbigny as witnesses, by the mayor of Couëron, the prefect of the arrondissement and the prefect of the department; countersigned on December 4, 1806, by W. D. Patterson, of the "Commercial Agency of the United States at Nantes." For the favor of examining this paper, I am indebted to the kindness of Miss Maria R. Audubon.

[130] For the privilege of examining these letters I am indebted to the courtesy of Dr. Louis Bureau, Director of the Museum of Natural History and Professor in the School of Medicine at Nantes, maternal great-grandson of François, and grandnephew of Ferdinand Rozier. The letters were found in an old trunk that once belonged to his grandfather, François Denis Rozier. Five were written in French (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7), and addressed from New York to François Rozier at Nantes; one (No. 3) in English and another (No. 5) in French were sent in care of Rozier, to his father, John Audubon, Esq., Nantes, with the direction to be delivered as soon as possible; all are on unruled foolscap, wafer-sealed, and each also bears an outside seal in wax, stamped with Bakewell's initial (B). It is not possible to say whether Lieutenant Audubon ever received these letters of his son; if received, it is not very obvious why they should have been left in the old merchant's hands, unless his ill health at the time, and subsequent death were the cause (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 152]). I am further indebted to Mr. William Beer, for the perusal of his copies, which have been followed to a large extent.

Since all of these early letters throw an interesting light upon the times as well as upon Audubon's personal history, we shall give them in full, rendering the French into English as literally as practicable.

[131] This Philadelphia merchant was evidently in France and intending to visit Nantes at this time.

[132] "Of the St. Domingo packet."

[133] "Mr. L. Huron did, a few days ago, receive some wines on a/c of M. Rozier, and hopes they prove good," etc.

[134] Miers Fisher, for many years Jean Audubon's trusted agent and attorney in America. See [Vol. I, p. 100].

[135] Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, his brother-in-law.

[136] That is a miniature or an old portrait of his father in the uniform of a lieutenant-commander, which with its companion, representing Mme. Jean Audubon, his stepmother, then hung in the house of "La Gerbetière" at Couëron. The original portraits, which are reproduced [facing page 78], measure 23½ by 18½ inches, and were painted probably between 1801 and 1806; they were inventoried in documents bearing date of November 14, 15 and 17, 1821, shortly after Mme. Jean Audubon's death. They were restored in Paris about ten years ago for Monsieur Lavigne, to whom I am indebted for the photographs and this information.

[137] Audubon's intimate friend, see [Vol. I, p. 128].

[138] "Serinettes," the old time music boxes, or bird-organs, of Swiss origin, that were very popular in America down to the time of the Civil War, or even later. They were manufactured at St. Croix as late as 1880; instruments of similar type, with dancing figures, have been adapted to the penny-in-the-slot machines common in Switzerland to-day.

[139] Marchand, or retail merchant.

[140] Initials of the head of his firm, Benjamin Bakewell.

[141] The reference was to Mme. Stephanie-Felicité de Genlis (1746-1830), teacher of the children of the Duke of Orleans, Philippe-Egalité, and authoress of many works on education, once popular, but now known only to the antiquary and the ragman.

[142] Meaning possibly his prospective brother-in-law, Thomas W. Bakewell, a fellow clerk in the office.

[143] One Louis was equal to twenty francs, or four dollars.

[144] Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 32.

[145] Especially his account current, from June 1, 1806, to July 25, 1807, with the "Mill Grove" farm, and "John Audubon of Nantz," drawn up and signed at Philadelphia on the latter date. Dacosta then claimed a balance due him of $950.64 above the returns from farm and mine, of which he was entitled to one-half; this sum included his salary and numerous minor expenditures. When his account was contested and taken out of court for settlement, it was cut by the arbitrators to $530. See [Appendix I, Document 11a].

The following is a "copy of the Award given by John Laval & Laurence Huron appointed referees by Francis Dacosta and John Audubon the elder by a rule of reference in the Common Pleas of this county to have their differences in accounts settled:"

"We the within named referees, having heard the parties and examined their respective accounts & vouchers, do award that there is due by the defendant, John Audubon the elder, to the plaintiff, Francis Dacosta, the sum of five hundred and thirty dollars, which we find to be the full balance of all current accounts between them, and we award that the said ballance be paid by the said John Audubon the elder to the said Francis Dacosta by defalking the same from the account of the condition of the Bond of Eight Hundred Dollars—mentioned in the within rule of reference conformably to the agreement endorsed on the said Bond."

"Witness our hands Philadelphia 1st August, 1807."

"Signed—John Laval."
"Laurence Huron."

(Copy of original MS., in possession of Mr. Welton H. Rozier.)

[146] In 1811 "Mill Grove" was conveyed by Francis Dacosta & Company, to Frederick Beates, who in 1813 sold it to Samuel Wetherill, Jr., for $7,000, the property having shrunk to less than one-half the value placed upon it in 1806. For the enterprises of the Wetherills, see [Note, Vol. I, p. 102].

[147] Since we have been obliged to enter rather minutely into the history of "Mill Grove," in order to trace the relations of the Audubons to it in an important period of the naturalist's career, the reader may be interested in the anticlimax which its famous mines reached at a later day. The Ecton Consolidated Mining Company had been in operation at "Mill Grove" for a considerable period, when, in 1848, the Perkioming Association was formed and ten thousand dollars was at once invested in machinery. In 1851 these two companies were combined under the name of the Perkioming Consolidated Mining Company, which issued 50,000 shares of stock, at six dollars each, thus representing a capital of $300,000. A mining settlement quickly sprang up on Audubon's old farm, where numerous buildings of stone, a general store, and miners' houses were to be seen. In the first annual statement issued by this company, the buildings were said to represent an outlay of $15,000, while $140,000 had been expended on machinery, both above and below ground. A Cornish expert, who was summoned from England, was paid $1,414 for a verbose report, the substance of which, it was said, was expressed in conveying the information, already known, that the "mineral mined is copper ore" (copper pyrite occurring in association with lead). This company closed its business in 1851, by assessing its stockholders one dollar a share, thus bringing the total loss in this final effort to $350,000, nearly one-third of which had been drawn from Philadelphia. After one, or two, further unsuccessful attempts had been made, all the substantial buildings of the mining works became a quarry, from which stone was sold by the perch, the ruins of the old engine house alone remaining to this day as a witness of the follies of the generations that are gone. (This account is based upon reports which have appeared in the press of Philadelphia or in other Pennsylvania newspapers.)

[148] Samuel Latham Mitchell (1764-1831), physician, naturalist, politician and voluminous writer on many subjects. In 1797 he founded, in association with Dr. Edward Miller and Dr. Elihu H. Smith, the New York Medical Repository, and was its chief editor. He began also, at the University of New York, one of the earliest collections in natural history, and in 1817 appealed to the Historical Society of his city for the foundation of a Zoölogical Museum; in the same year he organized the Lyceum of Natural History, and was its first president, Joseph Le Conte serving as corresponding secretary, and John Torrey as one of its curators. On April 9, the following subjects were assigned to different members for investigation, "Ichthyology or fishes, Plaxology or crustaceous animals, Apalology or mollusca, and Geology or the earth" being reserved for the president; Samuel Constantine Rafinesque (see [Chapter XIX]) took charge of "Helmintology or worms, Polypoligy or polyps, Atmology or Meteorology, Hydrology or waters, and Taxodomy or classification;" John Torrey, who became a distinguished botanist, was more modest, and assumed charge only of "Entomology or insects;" while to John Le Conte were given "Mastodology or mammalia, Erpetology or reptiles, and Glossology or nomenclature." See the American Monthly Magazine and Critical Review (New York) for August, 1817, p. 272.

[149] See [Vol. I, p. 185].

[150] Cuvier stated in his report on Audubon's Birds, delivered at the Academy of Sciences, Paris, September 22, 1828, that the author had been twenty-five years before a pupil in the school of David. This would place the date in 1803, but earlier than the autumn of that year, when Audubon started for America. See [Note, Vol. I, p. 99].

[151] Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. viii.

[152] F. T. Verger, Archives curieuses de la ville de Nantes et des départements de l'ouest (Nantes, 1837-41); for further references to David in this chapter I am mainly indebted to Georges Cain, Le Long des Rues (Paris, 1812), and Charles Saunier, Louis David (Paris, no date).

[153] The implication as to time, which is repeated above, contradicts an earlier statement, which is probably more nearly correct, for when Audubon returned to America in 1806 he was twenty-one.

[154] See R. W. Shufeldt, in The Auk and the Audubonian Magazine ([Bibliography, Nos. 184] and [190]).

[155] Referring to the fire of 1835, in New York.

[156] See [Chapter XXI].

[157] When it passed into the equally worthy hands of Mr. Joseph Y. Jeanes, of Philadelphia. Mr. Jeanes purchased from the estate of Mr. Edward Harris, 2d, directly or indirectly, and at different times, about 110 of these early originals; others were dispersed, four of early date being in the Museum of Harvard University. Mr. Jeanes also possesses a large section of the Audubon-Harris correspondence, which extended over nearly a quarter of a century, and of which little has been published; to his kindness I am indebted for the privilege of reproducing some of the drawings, as well as numerous extracts from the letters, in the present work.

[158] Audubon said that some of the originals of The Birds of America were "made as long ago as 1805," which may well have been the case, but the earliest date which has been preserved on the drawings is that of July 1, 1808, for "Rathbone's Warbler," later recognized as an immature form of the Summer Warbler. The Carbonated Warbler was drawn May 7, 1811. Seven bear the date of 1812, namely: Yellow-rumped Warbler, April 22; Le petit Caporal, April 23; Wood Pewee, April 28; Blackburnian and Bay-breasted Warblers, May 12; Chestnut-sided Warbler, May 17; and Cuvier's Wren, June 8.

[159] For a list of Audubon's early dated drawings see [Appendix II]. Through the courtesy of Mr. Jeanes, I am able to reproduce a fuller series of Audubon's early drawings of French and American birds than has hitherto been published, and have chosen the subjects to illustrate the development of his style.

[160] See [Vol. I, p. 125].

[161] Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 354.

[162] See [Appendix II].

[163] See [Appendix I, Document No. 11].

[164] This diary was first brought to my attention by Mr. Ruthven Deane, and for permission to reproduce it I am indebted to the kindness of a great-grandson of Ferdinand, Mr. Welton A. Rozier, of Saint Louis. Mr. Rozier writes that the original French notes have been mislaid or lost, but that they were closely followed in this translation, whenever complete. Though numerous verbal changes have been made in the present draft, these have not altered the meaning in any respect. Ferdinand Rozier's narrative begins as follows:

"I left Nantes, France, in company with John James Audubon, on Saturday, the 12th day of April, 1806, bound for the city of New York, U. S. A., on an American ship named the Polly, commanded by Captain Sammis, and arrived at New York on Tuesday, the 27th day of May. While on the voyage across the ocean our vessel was stopped, overhauled, searched, and robbed by an English privateer, named the Rattlesnake, which detained us a day and a night.

"We remained in New York City for a few days, and then removed to Mill Grove, on Pickering [Perkioming] Creek, in Pennsylvania, a tract of land owned by our fathers, and at that time thought to contain valuable minerals."

[165] In the rich bottom-lands of the Ohio River basin the hackberry or sugarberry (Celtis occidentals) sometimes exceeds one hundred feet in height, and has a diameter of from four to five feet.

[166] The population of the second city of Pennsylvania in 1800 was 1,565; in 1840, 4,768; and in 1910, after the annexation of Allegheny, 533,905.

[167] Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 28.

[168] See [Appendix I, Document No. 11].

[169] See [Chapter XI, page 158].

[170] When Audubon was returning with his wife and infant son from Pennsylvania to Kentucky in the autumn of 1810; see "The Ohio," Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 29.

[171] In 1800 the population of Louisville was 600, and in 1810 it had risen to 1,350; see Charles Cist, Cincinnati in 1841 (Cincinnati, 1841).

[172] For this and the letter of Thomas Bakewell's uncle, William Bakewell, which follows later, I am indebted to Mr. Tom J. Rozier; see [Note, Vol. I, p. 133], and for accompanying "Account Current" of Audubon & Rozier, [Appendix I, Document No. 11].

[173] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 196].

[174] The lead mine at "Mill Grove," which with the remaining Audubon and Rozier interests in the farm had been taken over by Dacosta's company in September, 1806. The failure of Dacosta followed in about a year after the date of this letter.

[175] Victor Gifford Audubon, who was then nine months old.

[176] See [Vol. I, p. 153].

[177] William Bakewell died at Philadelphia on March 6, of the same year, after suffering from the effects of a sunstroke, and was, eventually, buried at "Fatland Ford;" in 1822 his farm, originally of 800 acres, passed into the hands of Dr. William Wetherill. See [Note, Vol. I, p. 99], and W. G. Bakewell, Bakewell-Page-Campbell ([Bibl. No. 200]).

[178] In a letter to Alexander Lawson, written from Pittsburgh, on February 22, 1810; see Elliott Coues, "Private Letters of Wilson, Ord, and Bonaparte," Penn Monthly, vol. x, pp. 443-455 (Philadelphia, 1879).

[179] See Elliott Coues, loc. cit.

[180] Letter to Alexander Lawson, dated at Lexington, April 4, 1810; see Grosart, Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson, vol. i, p. 189.

[181] See Grosart, Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson, vol. i, p. xxiv.

[182] For "The Shark, or Lang Mills Detected," a satire directed against William Sharp, a manufacturer of Paisley; Wilson was fined £12 13s. 6d.

[183] See [Bibliography, No. 43].

[184] At Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on October 3, 1799, Alexander Wilson sent George Simpson, Esq., a State Treasurer's check in favor of Joseph Brown for $475, to be entered to the credit of Mr. Brown as one installment on 38 shares of scrip in the new loan at eight per cent, in the names of Thomas Eyes, 14 shares; Alexander Wilson, 14 shares; and Kenneth Sewell, 10 shares.

[185] This was the American edition of Abraham Rees' revision of Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopædia, which had appeared in London in 1728; it was published at Philadelphia, in forty-one quarto volumes of text and six volumes of plates, by Samuel F. Bradford and the Messrs. Murray, Fairman & Company, 1810-1824.

[186] "The types," said Charles Robert Leslie, "which were very beautiful, were cast in America, and though at that time paper was largely imported, he [Mr. Bradford] determined that the paper should be of American manufacture; and I remember that Ames, the paper maker, carried his patriotism so far that he declared that he would use only American rags in making it." (Autobiographical Recollections, Boston, 1860.)

[187] The American Ornithology: or, the Natural History of the Birds of the United States: Illustrated with Plates Engraved and Colored from Original Drawings taken from Nature, by Alexander Wilson, was published in nine imperial quarto volumes by Messrs. Bradford and Inskeep, at Philadelphia, 1808-1814. Each volume contained nine plates and from 100 to 167 pages of text, exclusive of prefatory and other matter. The eighth volume, which was nearly ready for press at the time of the author's death, was edited by George Ord, Wilson's friend and executor; the final volume, which was wholly by Ord, and which was issued in the same year, contained a life of Wilson. After the appearance of the initial volume, the edition was extended to 500 copies and the first volume was entirely reset. Ord's life of Wilson was expanded for a three-volume edition of the Ornithology, and from oversheets of this work was produced as a separate volume in 1828 (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 223]).

Wilson's published lists of subscribers show 449 names, calling for 458 copies, more than half of which were taken by residents of Pennsylvania, New York and Louisiana; 70 were subscribed for in Philadelphia, chiefly by business men, artists, and "those in the middle class of society;" New Orleans in seventeen days gave him 60 subscribers; Europe supplied 15, among whom were William Roscoe, later a patron of Audubon, and Benjamin West, the artist. Wilson figured and described 278 species of American birds (within the limits of the United States), of which 56 were supposed to be new, and the total number, given by Wilson and Ord, is said to be 320. Twenty-three species were erroneously supposed to be identical with their European counterparts, yet all of Wilson's birds except the "Small-headed Flycatcher," referred to at the end of this chapter, have been identified. Considering the time and the difficulties under which he labored, his mistakes were remarkably few.

[188] See [Vol. I, p. 340].

[189] See a letter to Professor S. S. Haldeman, dated February 6, 1879, in Penn Monthly, vol. x (Philadelphia, 1879).

[190] Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 437.

[191] Sketch of the Life of Alexander Wilson, Author of the American Ornithology, by George Ord, F. L. S. &c. pp. i-cxcix, Philadelphia, 1828; taken from vol. i of an octavo edition of Wilson, edited by Ord, and issued by Harrison Hall, in three volumes, at Philadelphia in 1828-29, with folio atlas of plates reproduced from the original work; see [Note 187], supra.

[192] See Ord's charge of plagiarism against Audubon ([Bibl. No. 145]) in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. i (1840). So far as could be ascertained in the summer of 1915, Wilson's diary of 1810 was not in the possession of any library or scientific society in Philadelphia, nor was it in the large collection of books which was given by Ord to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of that city at the time of his death in 1866.

[193] The bracketed lines are from Waterton, who once stated that he had examined the original.

[194] This sentence is quoted from Burns' biographical sketch of Wilson ([Bibl., No. 161]), but tenses are changed to correspond with other entries.

[195] Musicapa minuta, which appears in Figure 5, Plate 50, of volume vi of Wilson's American Ornithology (pp. 62-63 of the text), and in Figure 2, Plate ccccxxxiv, of Audubon's Birds of America (Ornithological Biography, vol. v, pp. 291-3).

[196] Nevertheless so careful and discerning a naturalist as Thomas Nuttall confidently asserted that his friend, Mr. M. C. Pickering, had "obtained a specimen several years ago near Salem (Massachusetts)"; see A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada (Cambridge, 1832). Dr. Elliott Coues at one time thought that it might have been the Pine-creeping Warbler, and Professor Baird identified it as the female or young of the Hooded Warbler.

[197] Compare Ornithological Biography, vol. iii, p. 203, where in Audubon's article on the Whooping Crane, there is this note: "Louisville, State of Kentucky, March, 1810. I had the gratification of taking Alexander Wilson to some ponds within a few miles of town, and of showing him many birds of this species, of which he had not previously seen any other than stuffed specimens. I told him that the white birds were the adults, and that the grey ones were the young. Wilson, in his article on the Whooping Crane, has alluded to this, but, as on other occasions, he has not informed his readers whence his information came."

[198] What appear to be the original legends, written on this drawing in ink, are as follows: "Chute de l'Ohio. July 1, 1808. No. 31. J. A. Que j'avais figuré [?] 12 pennes à la queue." Above were later added, also in ink, the names, "sylvia Trochilus delicata; Sylvia delicata, Aud."

[199] On this drawing, which with Audubon's other originals is in the collections of the Historical Society of New York, the legends are as follows: "Mississippi Kite, Male, Falco mississippiensis; Drawn from nature by John J. Audubon, Louisiana, parish of Feliciana, James Perrie's Esq., Plantation. June 28th, 1821. Length 14 inches; Breadth 3 feet, ½ inches; Weight 10¾ ounces; Tail feathers, 12." It is drawn in his usual style of that period, in pastel, water color and pencil, and has been dismounted.

[200] See [Vol. I, p. 305].

[201] American Ornithology, vol. iii, p. 80.

[202] See Witmer Stone, "Some Letters of Alexander Wilson and John Abbot," The Auk, vol. xxiii, 1906.

[203] In 1840, by W. B. O. Peabody, naturalist; author of a Life of Wilson; see [Bibliography, No. 105].

[204] Vincent Nolte, Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres ([Bibl. No. 176]).

[205] The first steamboat on the Ohio was the Orleans, a vessel of 200-400 tons, built at Pittsburgh in the summer and fall of 1811, by Robert Fulton and Robert M. Livingston; her first voyage, when she touched at Henderson, was signalized, as it seemed to many, by the great earthquakes of that year. The first Kentucky steamer was built at Henderson in 1817, the same year that a small vessel was constructed by Samuel Bowen and J. J. Audubon at the same place (see [Chapter XVI]). Compare Edmund L. Starling, History of Henderson County, Kentucky ([Bibl. No. 186]).

[206] Known first as Redbank or Redbanks, to distinguish it from Yellowbank, or Owensboro, on a similar bend farther upstream; called also Hendersonville, but this term had no official standing. The population of Henderson in 1810 is given as 159, and that of the entire county, then larger than at present, as 5,000. See Starling, op. cit.

[207] See [Vol. I, p. 235].

[208] See translations from copies of the originals, in French, in possession of the Louisiana Historical Society, New Orleans, in [Appendix I, Document No. 21].

[209] Boat for the exchange of prisoners of war.

[210] Compare [Note, Vol. I, p. 152].

[211] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 148].

[212] For this characterization of Ferdinand Rozier I am indebted mainly to an account by his son, Firman A. Rozier, at one time mayor of Ste. Geneviève and member of the State Legislature; see his History of the Early Settlement of the Mississippi Valley ([Bibl. No. 202]) (St. Louis, 1890).

[213] For a photograph of the old Rozier store at Ste. Geneviève, as well as for the likeness of Rozier, made in 1862, when he was in his eighty-fifth year, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Ruthven Deane, who received them from a son of Ferdinand, Felix Rozier, in November, 1905, when the latter had attained his eighty-third year.

[214] While living at Henderson the Audubons lost their two daughters, Rosa and Lucy, both of whom died when very young.

[215] "The Earthquake," Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]) vol. i, p. 280.

[216] This journey was probably made in February, though the date is given as April (see Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals, vol. i, p. 44), if the legends of four drawings of this time are to be trusted; all are labeled Pennsylvania, and bear the following dates: Swamp Sparrow, March, 1812; Spotted Sandpiper, April 22, 1812; White-throated Sparrow, April 24, 1812; and Whippoorwill, May 7, 1812.

[217] Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 81. In his biographical sketch of 1835 Audubon said that this occurred on his first return from Ste. Geneviève to Henderson (in 1811), a contradiction characteristic of his manner of dealing with biographical and historical details. For an account of this "Episode," see [Chapter XVIII].

[218] For early references to Henderson I am indebted mainly to Edmund L. Starling, History of Henderson County, Kentucky ([Bibl. No. 186]), who had access to all the town and county records.

[219] In 1819, the year of Audubon's departure, 129 town lots had been sold, while 29 had been given to privileged persons or to prospective settlers.

[220] According to the town records, as quoted by Starling, on December 22, 1813, Audubon purchased lots numbers 95 and 96, which were one-half of the square lying on the west side of Third Street and between Green and Elm Streets, from General Samuel Hopkins, agent of the Messrs. Richard Henderson & Company; on September 3, 1814, he bought lots numbers 91 and 92, or one-half of the square on the west side of Second Street, between Green and Elm. The mill site on the Ohio River was a part of the land given to Henderson by the Transylvania Company, the original owners of a large part of Kentucky; this site was leased for 99 years to J. J. Audubon, was sold and resold, but reverted to the city of Henderson in 1915. In the latter year the project was broached of obtaining the original mill site, together with adjoining property along the river, and converting the whole into a public park dedicated to Audubon.

[221] At a somewhat later time the naturalist occupied a one-story frame house, built in 1814, which stood at the corner of Fourth and Main Streets; see Starling, op. cit.

[222] See [Note 15, Vol. I, p. 124].

[223] A Henderson correspondent of Joseph M. Wade, under the signature of "W. S. J.," August 8, 1883, gave the following account of the structure. The original mill covered forty-five by sixty-five feet, and consisted of four stories and basement; the basement walls of stone stood four feet thick, while at the third story the thickness was three feet; the three upper stories were in frame. The studding measured three by six, and the rafters four by eight, inches. Many of the large timbers that could then be seen were sound and apparently good for a century or more. Parts of the old machinery that had been used in the grist mill were lying about under the eaves; the building was then used as a tobacco stemmery. See Joseph M. Wade ([Bibl. No. 182]), Ornithologist and Oölogist, vol. viii, p. 79 (1883).

The old Audubon mill in more recent times was incorporated into a warehouse for the storage of leaf tobacco; it was burned to the ground on March 18, 1913.

[224] The mill is supposed to have cost about $15,000; of this sum Thomas Pears is said to have contributed from $3,000 to $4,000, and William Bakewell a similar amount in the interest of his son, while Audubon presumably furnished the balance.

[225] Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. i, p. 47.

[226] In his journal of 1820 Audubon said that after the withdrawal of Bakewell, "men with whom I had long been associated offered me a partnership. I accepted, and a small ray of light appeared in my business, but a revolution occasioned by a numberless quantity of failures put all to an end."

[227] One of J. J. Audubon & Company's bills is here reproduced from Starling, op. cit.

"To the President and Directors of the Bank of Henderson to Henderson steam mill:

"To three pieces of scantling, 56 feet, 4½ c	$2.52
"To ten pieces of scantling, 34 feet	——
"To sixty rafters, 714 feet, at 4 c	28.56
"To five pieces scantling, 40 feet, at 3 c	1.20
"To fifteen joists [?], 278½ feet, at 6 c	16.71
"J. J. Audubon & Co."	$48.99

[228] According to W. G. Bakewell, Bakewell-Page-Campbell ([Bibl. No. 200]), Thomas Bakewell sold his interest in the store and mill to Audubon in 1817, but this is contradicted by other accounts. For the incident which follows, see Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. i, p. 34.

[229] See Dixon L. Merritt ([Bibl. No. 226a]), "Audubon in Kentucky," The Taylor-Trotwood Magazine, vol. 10 (1909), p. 293.

[230] Thomas Bakewell later became a successful builder of steamboats, first at Pittsburgh, and after 1824 at Cincinnati, where he was an important factor in the rising commerce of the Ohio Valley, and where he left his mark on the history of that city. As a theoretical mechanic in iron and wood he is said to have had no superior; his business was nearly destroyed in the panic of 1837, and he never regained his financial position. To his credit also it must be added that in 1860, at the age of seventy-two, he began at the bottom of the ladder again by engaging as a clerk with a paper company at Cincinnati, and, refusing the proffered aid of his children, he did not give up work until his eightieth year, seven years before his death in 1874. See W. G. Bakewell, Bakewell-Page-Campbell ([Bibl. No. 200]).

[231] Audubon was not so accurate when in his biographical sketch of 1835 he said: "Finally I paid every bill, and at last left Henderson probably forever...," for when at Charleston with Bachman in 1834, one of his former creditors attempted to sue him for debt and apparently carried his case to court. When Bachman asked for an explanation, Audubon wrote from New York, April 5, 1834, as follows: "Respecting the suit let me tell you ... that I went to Gaol at Louisville after having given up all to my creditors, and that I took the benefit of the act of insolvency at the Louisville Court House, Kentucky, before Judge Fortunatus Crosby & many witnesses, and that a copy of the record of that step can easily be had from that court.... I wish friend Donkin to do all he can to put a Conclusion—stop to this matter, for it makes me sick at heart." The lawyer here referred to was probably Judge Dunkin, friend of Bachman and distinguished in his profession, who had a plantation at Waccamaw, near Charleston, South Carolina (see [Chapter XXVII, Vol. II, p. 64.])

[232] See [Chapter IX, p. 63].

[233] For complete text of these wills, in the original, See [Appendix I, Documents 13-18].

[234] See [Note 4, Vol. I, p 27]. The suit brought by these plaintiffs was based upon a French law, which at that time debarred a natural child from inheriting property.

[235] Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol i, pp. iii and 130.

[236] Lucy B. Audubon, ed., The Life of John James Audubon ([Bibl. No. 73]), p. 55.

[237] See [Chapter VIII, p. 121].

[238] See [Chapter II, pp. 33 and 34].

[239] From G. L. du Puigaudeau's copy of his letter to John James Audubon (at Henderson), dated "Couëron, August 15, 1819," translated from the French. (Lavigne MSS.)

[240] See [Vol. I, p. 64].

[241] This, and the letter to follow, translated from Gabriel du Puigaudeau's copies. (Lavigne MSS.)

[242] This reference is evidently to the litigation over Lieutenant Audubon's will and the final disposition of his estate.

[243] It was thought that Victor had come to settle the family's financial affairs, and his uncle and aunt asked if this were the case; he replied that it was not, that the children of Jean Audubon who were in America had taken their [share of the] property in that country, while those in France had theirs in France; he considered that all was settled, but if Rosa's children wished for any money, they had but to ask for it, and the heirs in America would send them what they desired; the subject was then dropped. A considerable correspondence followed this visit, but the letters were all destroyed about twenty-five years ago by Monsieur du Puigaudeau, when putting his effects in order. This account is given on the authority of Monsieur Lavigne.

[244] These passages, which were shown to me by his granddaughter, Miss Maria R. Audubon, in 1914, but not for publication, occur in his journals under the following dates; June 4, 1826, at sea; March 15, 1827, at Edinburgh, after describing a visit of Lady Selkirk and her daughter; again on the 18th of March of the same or the following year; and on October 8, 1828, when writing to his wife from Paris and reflecting on the advisability of visiting his old home at Nantes. While these extraordinary passages are not quoted, out of deference to the wishes of his granddaughters, it seems only just to Audubon, in view of the revelations that have already been made, to add this brief reference to the incidents in question.

[245] This statement was made to me in 1914 by Miss Maria R. Audubon.

[246] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 27].

[247] In the first three volumes only of the Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), being omitted from the last two on account of the exigencies of space.

[248] Ornithological Biography, vol. iii, p. 270.

[249] While the object of this visit is not mentioned in the "Episode," it is stated in the second biographical sketch; the ambiguities connected with the sale of this farm, in which others besides Audubon were then interested, are discussed in Chapter XI.

[250] Vincent Nolte, Fifty Years in Both Hemispheres ([Bibl. No. 176]).

[251] See [Chapter XXI, p. 352].

[252] Limestone or, as it was later called, Maysville, was on the left bank of the river, in Kentucky, and about a hundred miles east of Cincinnati.

[253] "The Earthquake," Ornithological Biography, vol. i, p. 239.

[254] These historic earthquakes, which were most destructive of life and property in the lower Mississippi Valley, began on December 16, 1811, and therefore before Audubon and Nolte had reached the western country. They were noted for their remarkable frequency and persistence, 221 shocks having been recorded in a single week at Henderson, Audubon's home at that time; though their force was mostly spent after the first three months, they did not wholly die away in the Ohio Valley until December 12, 1813, when the last feeble vibration was recorded by Dr. Daniel Drake at Cincinnati; the worst shocks at this point were experienced on December 16, 1811, on January 23 and February 7, 1812. See Daniel Drake, Natural and Statistical View of Cincinnati, and the Miami Valley; with an appendix, containing observations on the late Earthquakes, (Cincinnati, 1815); and Edmund L. Starling, History of Henderson County, Kentucky ([Bibl. No. 186]).

[255] "The Hurricane," Ornithological Biography, vol. i, p. 262.

[256] James Hall ([Bibl. No. 123]), Western Monthly Magazine, vol. ii (1834).

[257] "The Regulators," Ornithological Biography, vol. i, p. 105.

[258] "Colonel Boone," ibid., vol. i, p. 503.

[259] See [Chapter V, p 88].

[260] "The Prairie," Ornithological Biography, vol. i, p. 81.

[261] John Burroughs, John James Audubon ([Bibl. No. 87]), p. 37.

[262] "See History of Sutton, New Hampshire, compiled by Augustus Harvey Worthen, pt. I (Concord, 1890).

[263] "The Eccentric Naturalist," Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 455.

[264] For the characterization of Rafinesque given in the present chapter I am chiefly indebted, aside from his own writings, to his two most sympathetic biographers, Richard Ellsworth Call and T. J. Fitzpatrick, as well as to David Starr Jordan; see [Bibliography, Nos. 198], [228], and [183]. Fitzpatrick gives photographic reproductions from Rafinesque's exceedingly diversiform and scattered works; his bibliographic titles extend to 939, and "Rafinesquiana" to 134.

[265] "At Palermo," said Swainson, "I had the pleasure of meeting ... Rafinesque Schmaltz, whose first name is familiar to most zoölogists. In the society of such congenial minds, I passed many happy hours, and made many delightful excursions ... by the inducement of the latter, I was led to investigate the ichthyology of the western coast." (See [Bibliography, No. 170].)

[266] See [Vol. I, pp. 171] and [336].

[267] See David Starr Jordon ([Bibl. No. 183]), Popular Science Monthly, vol. xxix (1886). "The true story of this practical joke was told me by the venerable Dr. Kirtland, who in turn received it from Dr. Bachman;" the latter, I might add, was the friend and correspondent of the "Sage of Rockport" after a visit at his home near Cleveland in the summer of 1852. In the private notebooks of Rafinesque copies of Audubon's drawings are still to be seen, and "a glance at these," said Dr. Jordon, "is sufficient to show the extent to which science through him has been victimized."

Audubon was also responsible for a number of extraordinary "new species" of birds, the most notorious of which was the Scarlet-headed Swallow, of which Rafinesque published the following account in 1820: "Hirundo phenicephala. Head scarlet, back gray, belly white, bill and feet black. A fine and rare swallow seen only once by Mr. Audubon near Henderson, Kentucky...." See Samuel N. Rhoads, "Constantine S. Rafinesque as an Ornithologist," Cassinia, No. XV (Philadelphia, 1911).

[268] The Western Review and Miscellaneous Magazine, Lexington, 1819-20.

[269] Ichthyologia Ohiensis, or Natural History of the Fishes inhabiting the River Ohio and its tributary Streams, preceded by a physical description of the Ohio and its branches. By C. S. Rafinesque, Professor of Botany and Natural History in Transylvania University, Author of the Analysis of Nature, &c. &c. Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New-York, the Historical Society of New-York, the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the American Antiquarian Society, the Royal Institute of Natural Sciences of Naples, the Italian Society of Arts and Sciences, the Medical Societies of Lexington and Cincinnati, &c. &c.

"The art of seeing well, or of noticing and distinguishing with accuracy the objects which we perceive, is a high faculty of the mind, unfolded in few individuals, and despised by those who can neither acquire it, nor appreciate its results."

Lexington, Kentucky: printed for the author by W. G. Hunt. (Price one dollar.) (Pp. 1-90. Lexington, 1820.)

Fitzpatrick (see [Bibliography, No. 228]) gives a list of 14 copies of this work, the whereabouts of which are known; we can add another from the library of Dr. Jared P. Kirtland, now in the collections of Western Reserve University; it is bound up with Dr. Kirtland's notebook on birds and fishes, and labeled "Scraps of Natural History. My Note Book;" a written notice on the inside of the cover, imploring the finder to return the volume to its owner if lost, is signed by Dr. Kirtland and dated "Cleveland, O., Oct. 16th, 1839." Probably fewer than 20 original copies of the work now exist. It was reproduced in a limited edition, with a sketch of Rafinesque's life and works by Richard Ellsworth Call, published by the Burrows Brothers' Company of Cleveland in 1899.

[270] Probably not before October of that year, when Audubon first met John Bachman, at Charleston, South Carolina.

[271] Reply to a criticism of G. W. Featherstonhaugh (The Monthly American Journal of Geological Science), in Rafinesque's Atlantic Journal and Friend of Knowledge, No. 3, p. 113 (Philadelphia, 1832). Rafinesque occasionally spoke of meeting "my friend Audubon," who, he declared, had invited him to join his expedition to Florida in 1831-32.

[272] Isaac Lea, in A Synopsis of the Family of Naiades, pp. 8-9 (Philadelphia, 1836).

[273] See [Bibliography, No. 204].

[274] The landlord, to whom Rafinesque had been in arrears for rent, had locked his body in the room and refused permission for its burial, thinking to find a market for it in one of the medical schools of the city. Rafinesque was buried in a little churchyard, then outside of the limits of the city, known as Ronaldson's cemetery, now at Ninth and Catharine Streets. See Call and Fitzpatrick, [Bibliography, Nos. 198] and [228].

[275] Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 36.

[276] Ibid., vol. i, p. 49.

[277] Dr. Daniel Drake (1785-1852) was one of the most versatile and prolific writers on medicine which the West has ever produced, and Cincinnati owed to him much, for he was instrumental in organizing in that city a church, a literary society, a museum, a hospital, a college, and a school of medicine, while he enjoyed a large medical practice, lectured on botany, and was a partner in two mercantile establishments. We might also add that his "Notice concerning Cincinnati" (pp. 1-28, i-iv. Printed for the author at Cincinnati, 1810), of which only three copies are known to exist, is the earliest and rarest published record of that city. This little pamphlet included a "Flora" of the city for 1809, and from it we transcribe this interesting extract (p. 27):

"May 10. Black locust in full flower.

"It is highly probable that the flowering of this beautiful tree, the Robinia pseudocacia of Linnæus, indicates the proper time for planting the important vegetable the Indian corn. For several successive years I have observed our farmers generally to plant corn during some stage of its flowering. This from the 10th to the 20th of May."

For the privilege of examining one of the original copies of this paper, I am indebted to Mr. Wallace H. Cathcart of the Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland.

[278] See Audubon's letter to Thomas Sully, reproduced in [Vol. II, p. 68]. In his Ohio and Mississippi Rivers Journal Audubon wrote on April 5, 1821: "Cap. Cumming left us on the 10 for Phila; the poor man had not one cent with him."

[279] This early journal fills a large unruled book, measuring about 13 by 8 inches, of 201 pages, beginning with Oct. 12, 1820, and closing with December 31, 1821; it forms a part of the John E. Thayer collection of Audubon and Wilson manuscripts and drawings in possession of Harvard University, having been once included in the estate of Joseph M. Wade. The collection embraces four early drawings by Audubon, presumably at one time in the hands of Edward Harris (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 180]); 73 of Audubon's original letters, comprising largely his correspondence with Dr. John Bachman; 60 letters by Victor G. Audubon; and a few by other members of the naturalist's family. See the Annual Report of the Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology for 1910-1911.

Through the courtesy of Professor E. L. Mark, and the Director of the Museum, Dr. Samuel Henshaw, I have been permitted to examine these numerous documents. In any direct or casual reference to this valuable material, I have endeavored not to overstep the bounds of propriety, in view of the fact that the University contemplates publishing copious extracts from it at an early day. It should be noticed that excerpts from this journal have already appeared in print. See following Note.

[280] See Ruthven Deane ([Bibl. No. 41]), The Auk, vol. xxi, pp. 334-338.

[281] "Natchez in 1820" and "The Lost Portfolio," Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. iii, pp. 529 and 564.

[282] The original of this admirable drawing had been shot at New Madrid, on the Ohio, on November 23, and Audubon, who immediately began to work on it, recorded his conviction that the White-headed or Bald Eagle and the "Brown Eagle," which he later called "The Bird of Washington," were two different species; he thought that the young of the former, which was also brown, was much smaller in size. See [Vol. I, p. 241].

[283] These drawings were as follows:

• "Common gallinule; Not described by Willson;
• Common gull; Not described by Willson;
• Marsh hawk;
• Boat tailed grackle; Not described by Willson;
• Common Crow;
• Fish Crow;
• Rail or Sora;
• Marsh Tern;
• Snipe; Not described by Willson;
• Hermit Thrush;
• Yellow Red poll Warbler;
• Savannah Finch;
• Bath Ground Warbler; Not described by Willson;
• Brown Pelican; Not described by Willson;
• Great Footed Hawk;
• Turkey Hen; Not described by Willson;
• Cormorant;
• Carrion Crow or Black Vulture;
• Imber Diver;
• White Headed or Bald Eagle."

[284] Vanderlyn, like Audubon, had been a pupil of David at Paris; he produced historical paintings of merit, as well as panoramas, then coming into vogue; some of the latter were exhibited in the "Rotunda" which he erected for that purpose in City Hall Park, New York, but this enterprise failed, and his building was seized by the city for debt. Vanderlyn died in absolute want in 1852. See Samuel Isham, The History of American Painting (New York, 1915).

[285] "Bayou," in Louisiana, is a term commonly applied to any slow-running stream. According to the tradition gathered on the spot by Mr. Stanley C. Arthur, both stream and settlement were formerly called "New Valentia," while the present name was derived from an old woman called "Sara," who many years ago lived at the mouth of the Bayou, where she practiced some sort of spurious physic. St. Francisville, on the hill, received its name from the circumstance that the brothers of St. Francis, who had a mission at Pointe Coupée, on the opposite bank, were in the habit of ferrying their dead over the river, in order to bury them on the high ground; "Bayou Sara" and "St. Francisville" are used interchangeably by the inhabitants. See S. C. Arthur ([Bibl. No. 230]), Times-Picayune, New Orleans, August 6, 1916.

[286] On the original drawing of the Pine-creeping Warbler, The Birds of America (Plate cxl), the following legends appear in Audubon's autograph: "Drawn from Nature by John J. Audubon, James Pirrie's Plantation, Louisiana, July 10, 1821. Plant, J. R. Mason."

Sixteen of Audubon's originals, which still bear the designations of time and place, were produced during this interval, in the year 1821; they embrace the Mississippi Kite (Plate cxvii, see [Vol. I, p. 228]), June 28; Yellow-throated Vireo (Plate cxix), July 11; Red-cockaded Woodpecker (Plate ccclxxxix), July 29; American Redstart (Plate xl), August 13; Summer Red-bird (Plate xliv), August 27; Prairie Warbler (Plate xiv), Sept. 3; and the Tennessee Warbler (Plate cliv), Oct. 17.

[287] The Birds of America, Plate xxi.

[288] See [Chapter XXVIII, p. 72].

[289] The vivacious Miss Pirrie did not marry the young doctor, but eloped to Natchez with the son of a neighboring planter, who died within a month in consequence of a cold, said to have been contracted when he waded a deep stream with his lady-love in his arms. Audubon's pupil was thrice married, and bore five children; she died April 20, 1851, and her ashes now rest by the side of her second husband, the Reverend William Robert Bowman, the parish minister at St. Francisville. See Arthur ([Bibl. No. 230]), loc. cit.

[290] Mistakenly written "Brand" by Audubon's biographers, according to Mr. Stanley C. Arthur, who writes that "Braud" is a very common name in New Orleans.

[291] Father Antonio de Sedella, popularly known as "Père Antoine," after 1791 pastor of St. Louis Cathedral; an idol of the people, but execrated by historians.

"This seditious priest is a Father Antoine; he is a great favorite of the Louisiana ladies; has married many of them, and christened all their children; he is by some citizens esteemed an accomplished hypocrite, has great influence with the people of color, and, report says, embraces every opportunity to render them discontented under the American Government." Executive Journal of Governor Claiborne. See Charles Gayarré, History of Louisiana, vol. iv, pp. 154-155 (New Orleans, 1903).

[292] This item occurs in Audubon's journal for October 25; "Rented a house in Dauphine street at seventeen dollars per month, and determined to bring my family to New Orleans."

[293] See Audubon's letter to Sully, [Vol. II, p. 69].

[294] Now in the collection of Mr. John E. Thayer, Lancaster, Mass.

[295] Mr. Stanley C. Arthur, whose recent visit to this region has already been noticed, gathered there from the lips of old residents, some of whom were descendants of those who had known the Audubons, a store of reliable data by which the history of the naturalist at this important phase of his life is revealed in its true light; to him I am indebted for a series of excellent photographs of the region, its historic houses and people, as well as for much needed information. See Arthur ([Bibl. No. 230]), loc. cit.

[296] One of the early steamboats on the Ohio that had been built at Pittsburgh, in 1821, by Thomas W. Bakewell, his brother-in-law and former partner.

[297] See "A Tough Walk for a Youth," Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. iii, p. 371; and "The Hospitality of the Woods," ibid., vol. i, p. 383.

[298] This lady had a remarkable history. She was the widow of the Marquis de Saint Pie, and was at one time a dame d'honneur of Queen Marie Antoinette; like many others of noble birth, she had fled from Paris during the Revolution, and emigrated to America, where with her husband she assumed the name of Berthoud. Her son, Nicholas Augustus, had married Mrs. Audubon's sister, Eliza Bakewell, in 1816.

[299] See [Chapter XIV].

[300] This was the third edition of the American Ornithology, issued by Messrs. Collins & Company in New York and by Harrison Hall of Philadelphia, in three octavo volumes, with an atlas of 76 plates colored by hand, in 1828-9. Mr. Hall, who appears to have been the person most interested financially in this edition, was a brother of James Hall, author of a notorious review in which this work was praised at the expense of Audubon, who was viciously attacked (see [Bibliography, No. 123]). Friends of Audubon repeatedly asserted that as soon as his popularity and success began to check the sales of Wilson's work, Ord and a few others, aided by interested publishers, began a systematic series of attacks, some notice of which is taken in [Chapter XXVIII].

[301] See [Chapter XIV].

[302] Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and Musignano, the eldest son of Lucien, and nephew of Napoleon, Bonaparte, was born at Paris in 1803, and died there in 1857. At this time he was settled with his uncle and father-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, former King of Spain, at Philadelphia, and there and at Bordentown, New Jersey, where Joseph had an estate, he undertook the study of American birds. His best known scientific works are: American Ornithology, or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States, not Given by Wilson, 4 volumes, quarto, with 27 colored plates, Philadelphia, 1825-1833; and Iconographica della Fauna Italica, Rome, 1833-1841. In 1828 he retired to Italy, where he was devoted to literary and scientific pursuits. He was an early subscriber to Audubon's Birds of America, but their relations were somewhat strained on the publication of the Ornithological Biography in 1831 (see [Chapter XXIX]). Bonaparte later entered politics in Italy, and was leader of the republican party at Rome in 1848 and 1849; after having been expelled from France by the order of Louis Napoleon, he was permitted to return in 1850, and became director of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris.

He was a closet naturalist rather than a field student, but did much for the reform of nomenclature. In his Ornithology the number of American birds was raised to 366, nearly one hundred having been added since the work of Wilson was revised by Ord, but he added only two that were new, Cooper's Hawk, (Accipiter cooperi), named after William Cooper of New York, and Say's Phœbe (Sayornis saya), dedicated to Thomas Say, and first procured by Titian R. Peale in the Rocky Mountain districts of the Far West. Perhaps his most important technical work, the Conspectus Generum Avium, begun in 1850, was incomplete at the time of his death.

[303] William Dunlap, History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States ([Bibl. No. 59]), vol. ii, p. 402 (New York, 1834).

[304] The Boat-tailed Grackle, vol. i, plate iv.

[305] He seems, however, to have supplied Bonaparte liberally with notes, for after devoting fifteen pages to the biography of the Wild Turkey, Audubon said: "A long account of this remarkable bird has already been given in Bonaparte's American Ornithology, volume I. As that account was in a great measure derived from notes furnished by myself, you need not be surprised, good reader, to find it often in accordance with the above." Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 16.

[306] Edward Harris was born at Morristown, New Jersey, in 1799, where he died in 1863. Without the incentive to earn money or the ambition to acquire fame, he lived the life of a gentleman of leisure, devoted to natural history, to sport and to the cultivation of his paternal acres. He had the gift of friendship, was widely traveled, wrote charming letters, and kept careful records of his observations, but rarely published anything. The breeding of fine stock was one of his hobbies, and as a result of a journey to Europe in 1839, when he visited a horse fair in Normandy, he is credited with having first introduced the Norman breed into America. "The beneficent results of his quiet, unobtrusive life," says an appreciative biographer, "reach down to our time, and, after half a century, we are glad that Edward Harris lived." See biographical sketch by George Spencer Morris, in Cassinia, vol. vi (Philadelphia, 1902).

[307] See [Chapter XII, p. 179].

[308] Written by Dr. Edmund Porter of Frenchtown, New Jersey, to Dr. Thomas Miner of Haddam, Connecticut, on October 25, 1825. See Witmer Stone, "Some Philadelphia Ornithological Collections and Collectors, 1784-1850," The Auk, vol. xvi (New York, 1899).

[309] Thomas Sully (1783-1872), Englishman by birth, who had come to America at an early age, and like Audubon had waged a bitter struggle before success was achieved, became one of the first portrait painters of the early American School.

In 1831 Sully wrote to Audubon that his success in England and France had charmed all of his friends in America, that it was like a personal triumph to them, and that it would soon silence his few remaining enemies; "Be true to yourself, Audubon," he added, "and never doubt of success." It has been said that when Audubon first came to Philadelphia in 1824 he applied to Sully for instruction, saying that he wished to become a portrait painter (see Dunlap, op. cit.); again that he was ready to sell his drawings to the highest bidder; but the records of his journals from 1820 onward are sufficiently consistent to show what his purpose really was.

[310] For the favor of examining a collection of interesting autograph letters written to Audubon in Europe and America, some of which are here reproduced, I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Henry R. Howland, secretary of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. This note was written on a narrow strip of manila-colored drawing paper.

[311] See [Chapter XI].

[312] See [Bibliography, Nos. 15] and [16].

[313] See Lucy Audubon, ed., Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist ([Bibl. No. 73]), p. 107.

[314] See [Vol. I, p. 219].

[315] Probably first published in a newspaper, and reprinted in pamphlet form, dated "April 9, 1846"; see [Bibliography, No. 42].

[316] Miss Jennett Benedict in 1836 became Mrs. Butts; the crayon portrait which Audubon made at this time was carefully treasured by her daughter, the late Mrs. Frederick A. Sterling, of Cleveland, Ohio, to whose kindness I am indebted for the privilege of reproducing it. This original drawing, which is presumably a fair specimen of Audubon's itinerant portraiture, was made on a sheet of buff, water-marked paper, 14½ by 10½ inches in dimensions; it was outlined in pencil, and carefully finished in crayon-point; its legend "J. J. Audubon-1824," was inserted in pencil, in a very fine hand at the lower margin of the sketch. The Colson store was at the corner of Water Street and south of Cherry Alley. For an account of this incident I am indebted to Mrs. Sterling, and to an article in the Tribune Republican, of Meadville, for February 7, 1907.

[317] Ornithological Biography, vol. i, p. xi.

[318] The Jeanes MSS.; see [Note, Vol. I, p. 180].

[319] "Shipping Port," as the village below the rapids or falls of the Ohio was then called, was joined to Louisville by the Louisville and Portland Canal, a channel two and one-half miles long, in 1830, two years after the city received its charter. The "Louisville" or "Portland" cement, a name now applied to the product of a considerable district, was first manufactured at Shipping Port, in 1829, for the construction of this canal.

[320] Audubon's 1826 manuscript journal, which I examined through the courtesy of Miss Maria R. Audubon in 1914, was written, mostly in pencil, in a ruled blank book, of similar size and quality to that used on the Ohio River in 1820-21 (see [Note, p. 307]), and was illustrated with a number of pencil sketches, chiefly of fishes. On page 2 was a rough outline sketch of first mate Sam L. Bragdon, of Wells, Maine, reading in the booby hatch; to his kindness Audubon paid a written tribute; there was also a drawing of a "Balacuda [Barracouta] Fish, June 17, 1826;" of a "Shark, 7 ft. long; off Cuba, Jn. 18" ([see reproduction]); and of a "Dolphin; Gulph of Florida, May 28;" other sketches were of a line or "thread-winder," a Flying Fish, and outlines of the Cuban coast.

Audubon presented a sketch of the "Dolphin" to Captain Hatch, whose vessel, the Delos, went down on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland in the summer of 1831, but not until her crew and valuables had been transferred to another boat that stood by. (For this note I am indebted to Miss Maria R. Audubon.)

[321] Addressed "General Lafayette,
Paris ou Lagrange."

Translated from the French original, kindly sent to me by Mr. Ruthven Deane.

[322] For an account of Audubon's meeting with Nolte see [Chapter XVIII].

[323] Dr. Thomas Stuart Traill, after whom one of our common flycatchers was named, was a founder of the Royal Institution at Liverpool, and later a professor of medical jurisprudence at Edinburgh. When the keepership of the Department of Natural History in the British Museum became vacant through the resignation of Dr. Leech in 1822, Dr. Traill supported William Swainson for the position; when George J. Children received the appointment, he was disinclined to accept defeat, and entered upon a crusade against the Museum's trustees in a series of anonymous articles contributed to the Edinburgh and Westminster Reviews. Traill's exposure of the neglect which the natural-history collections had suffered in the custody of the British Museum paved the way to a separate Department of Zoology, which in the able hands of John E. Gray, and later in those of Sir Richard Owen, led to the present great Museum of Natural History at South Kensington.

[324] In dedicating the Sylvia rathbonia Audubon said: "Were I at liberty here to express the gratitude which swells my heart, when the remembrance of all the unmerited kindness and unlooked-for friendship which I have received from the Rathbones of Liverpool comes to my mind, I might produce a volume of thanks. But I must content myself with informing you, that the small tribute of gratitude which it is alone in my power to pay, I now joyfully accord, by naming after them one of those birds, to the study of which all my efforts have been directed. I trust that future naturalists, regardful of the feelings which have guided me in naming this species, will continue to it the name of the Rathbone Warbler."

[325] Named after John Stevens Henslow, Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge, whom Audubon had met in 1828, when Charles Darwin was still his pupil.

[326] This seal, the design of which has since been adapted for a bookplate, was long in use, and though at one time lost, is still in possession of the family. A copy of the large original, which was to serve as his first plate, was presented to the Royal Institution of Liverpool as an acknowledgment of its hospitality, for it had refused remuneration in any other form.

[327] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 375].

[328] The plates as issued, untrimmed, measured 39½ by 29½ inches; see [Bibliography, No. 1].

[329] See [Note, Vol. II, p. 197]. Incidentally it may be noticed that the "tiger swallowtail" in this plate was possibly added for effect, for few of our birds, which habitually hunt moths, ever prey upon butterflies. I have seen the cabbage butterfly and a few of the smaller kinds brought to the nests of the Chebec and Wood Pewee but never a "monarch" or "papilio"; yet some affirm that the Kingbird will attack the "monarch."

[330] Translated from Études sur la Littérature et les Mœurs des Anglo-Americains au XIXe siècle, "Audubon," pp. 66-106 (Paris, 1851). Philarète-Chasles, who wrote chiefly on American, English and European authors and books, has seventy volumes credited to him in the National Library at Paris.

[331] P. A. Cap, in L'Illustration for 1851. Cap's hint was taken by Eugène Bazin, who translated copious selections from the Ornithological Biography, which were published in two volumes in Paris in 1857 (see [Bibliography, No. 38]).

[332] See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]).

[333] Audubon's copy of this oil painting remained in the possession of his family until a few years ago, when it was sold for a much greater amount. It now adorns the beautiful ornithological museum of Mr. John E. Thayer, at South Lancaster, Massachusetts; it represents a cock and hen turkey in life size, adapted from the subjects of his two most famous plates, and is in an admirable state of preservation. Mr. Thayer's collection also embraces Audubon's large canvas of the Black Cocks, from the Edward Harris estate, a charming study of the Hen Turkey, with landscape setting, and, also in oils, several smaller panels of Flickers and Passenger Pigeons, which, if not the work of the naturalist, are copies after his originals, and possibly made by Joseph B. Kidd. (See [Vol. I, p. 446]; and for a notice of Mr. Thayer's other Audubonian drawings, [Vol. II, p. 227], and [Appendix II].)

[334] Basil Hall (1788-1844), noted for his travels in China, Korea, and on the coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico, visited the United States in 1827-28; his Travels in North America appeared in 1829.

[335] See [Chapter XXVIII].

[336] Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. i, p. 204.

[337] Which I owe to the kindness of his granddaughter, Miss Maria R. Audubon; it is superscribed "Mrs. Audubon, St. Francisville, Bayou Sarah, Louisville, p Wm Penn;" it reached New Orleans on June 13, and is endorsed as answered on June 23.

[338] John Woodhouse Audubon at this time was in his fifteenth year, and this injunction regarding the internal anatomy of birds, to which ornithologists had hitherto paid but little attention, was given three years before his father made the acquaintance of MacGillivray. (See [Chapter XXX].)

[339] See [Chapter XXV].

[340] The work, as originally announced, was to appear in parts of 5 plates each, at 2 guineas a part, and in order to distribute the expense to purchasers it was expected to issue but 5 parts a year. The plates, to be engraved on copper, were of double elephant folio size, and printed on paper of the finest quality, all the birds and flowers to be life-size, and to be carefully colored by hand, after the originals; any subscriber was at liberty to take a part or the whole. It was stated in the prospectus of 1829, when 10 parts had been published: "There are 400 Drawings, and it is proposed that they shall comprise Three Volumes, each containing 133 Plates, to which an Index will be given at the end of each, to be bound up with the volume.... It would be advisable for the subscriber to procure a Portfolio, to keep the Numbers till a volume is completed." To avoid the expense entailed by copyright regulations in England, indices and all other letterpress were eventually omitted; the number of parts was extended to 87, or 435 plates, and the number of volumes to 4, a necessity imposed by the discovery of many new birds, even after the omission of the figures of the eggs, which Audubon had reserved for the close, and the undue crowding of many of his final plates. The "Prospectus" issued with the first volume of the text in 1831 contained a list of the first 100 plates, together with extracts of reviews by Cuvier and Swainson, and a list of subscribers to the number of 180. For further details, see [Bibliography, No. 1], and [Appendix III, No. 2].

[341] Illustrations of British Ornithology, by Prideaux John Selby. The British Museum copy of this work is in two large folio volumes (measuring about 25½ by 20½ inches), and was issued originally in numbers which appeared at irregular intervals. Vol. I, plates i-iv (of bills, heads, and feet), i-c (of land birds); most of the plates are by Selby, and many were etched by him and autographed, 1819-1821; plates xiv, xvi, and xx are by Captain R. Mitford, whose home, "Mitford Castle," near Morpeth, Northumberland, was visited by Audubon in April, 1827; published at Edinburgh by Archibald Constable & Co., and by Hurst, Robinson & Co., London, 1825(?)-1827. Volume II, plates i-ciii; printed for the Proprietor & published by W. H. Lizars, Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green & Longman, London; and W. Curry, Junr. & Co., Dublin, MDCCCXXXIV. Quaritch, in offering a copy in 1887, at £55, stated that there were 383 figures, in 221 colored plates, and that the published price was £105. Newton (Dictionary of Birds, p. 27) says that the first series of these "Illustrations" was published in coöperation with Sir William Jardine, in 3 volumes of 150 plates, in 1827-1835, after which a second series was started by them, and completed in a single volume of 53 plates, issued in 1843. This was the "job book" mentioned earlier in this chapter (see [p. 358]), but neither Jardine's nor Jameson's name is mentioned in the volumes which I have examined.

In a letter to Audubon, dated "Sept. 13h 1830 Twizel [l?] House," and postmarked "Belford," Selby said: "I expect to bring my own work to a conclusion during the course of this winter having only the plates of another Number to finish. I am happy to add that the Work is doing well & is more than paying itself. The second Vol: of letter press will appear with the last No."

Two volumes of text were published in 1825 and 1833 respectively; the first, after readjustment to fit the "quinarian doctrine," to which Selby was a temporary convert (see [Vol. II, p. 94]), was issued in a second edition at London, in 1841; the second volume bore the imprint of Lizars, who soon after began to work for Audubon.

Selby's plates were for the most part rather crudely drawn, etched and colored, and could be commended only as the work of amateurs who strove for accuracy.

[342] Among the sixty or more persons to whom Audubon carried written credentials at this time were the following: the Duke of Northumberland, Robert Peel, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir J. D. Aukland, Albert Gallatin, the American Minister, Sir Thomas Lawrence, David Wilkie, Dr. Buckland, Dr. Holland, Dr. Roget, Dr. Wollaston, William Swainson, Sir William Herschel, and his son, afterwards Sir John Herschel, John George Children, R. W. Hay, N. A. Vigors, Captain Cook, John Murray and Robert Bakewell (see [Vol. II, p. 134]).

[343] Probably the same that is referred to in his journals as "Mr. Hays, the antiquarian."

[344] J. G. Children (1777-1852) was early interested in chemistry, and at Tunbridge built a good laboratory, in which Humphry Davy conducted many of his early experiments, and while there was seriously injured in October, 1812. In 1824 Children discovered a method of extracting silver without the use of mercury. When Mr. Children, Senior, became insolvent through the failure of his bank, his son obtained a position at the British Museum; in 1816 he was librarian in the Department of Antiquities, but in 1823 he was transferred to a post in zoölogy which was eagerly sought by William Swainson; he was secretary of the Royal Society in 1826-27, and again in 1835-37. He resigned his position at the Museum in 1840, when Swainson was again an unsuccessful candidate, and was succeeded by J. E. Gray (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 353]). Children was not a productive zoölogist, but has been described as a lovable soul, who was never soured by illness or other misfortunes, and who was as zealous in his friendships as in science. See "A. A." (Anna Atkins), Memoir of J. G. Children, Esq. ([Bibl. No. 175]).

[345] In the account which follows, as well as in numerous instances in [Chapter XXXII], I am most indebted to George Alfred Williams, who in "Robert Havell, Junior, Engraver of Audubon's The Birds of America," ([Bibl. No. 232]) (Print-Collectors Quarterly, vol. vi, no. 3, pp. 225-259, Boston, 1916), has given the only satisfactory account of the Havell family and the best analysis of the work of the great engraver.

[346] Mr. Charles E. Goodspeed, who recently sent me two of the original plates of the Prothonotary Warbler, one bearing the legend "Engraved by W. H. Lizars Edinr," and the other, "Engraved, Printed & Coloured, by R. Havell Junr," called attention to the identity of the two engravings. That these two impressions are absolutely identical in aquatint and line is proved by applying a magnifying glass to any part of their surfaces, and by counting and comparing the lines or dots within any selected area whatsoever; in short, they differ only in their legends, and in the coloring which was applied by different hands. That such methods should have been adopted for excluding Lizars' name is certainly surprising. In the first or Edinburgh impression of Lizars' original plate, the artist's legend reads: "Drawn by J. J. Audubon M. W. S.," and names of bird and plant appear at the bottom of the plate in three lines: "PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. Dacnis protonotarius. Plant Vulgo Cane Vine." In the London edition the corresponding designations are: "Drawn from nature by J. J. Audubon F, R, S. F, L, S.," and PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. Sylvia Protonotarius. Lath, Male. 1. Female, 2. Cane Vine.," in four lines.

[347] See [Chapter XXXII].

[348] See ibid.

[349] See Sir Walter Besant, London in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1909).

[350] See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 342, where the "Eagle and the Lamb" is reproduced.

[351] See [Vol. I, p. 436].

[352] See [Chapter XXVIII].

[353] The seventh which he had contributed to the scientific press of Europe, entitled "Notes on the Bird of Washington (Falco Washingtoniana), or Great Sea Eagle," now believed to have been mistaken by him for an immature stage of the true "bird of freedom," the White-headed Eagle. It was dated "London, April, 1828," and was published in Loudon's Magazine for July of that year. See [Bibliography, No. 23].

[354] From the originals in possession of the Linnæan Society of London. Swainson's scientific correspondence was taken with him to New Zealand, where it remained fifty years, until returned by his daughter, who sent it to Sir Joseph Hooker; it was finally purchased by a number of Fellows of the Society, and presented to its historical collections. It consists of 934 letters written by 236 correspondents, from 1806 to 1840. Of the 24 letters written by Audubon, and dated 9 April, 1829, to 11 January, 1838, none has been previously published. Dr. Albert Günther, who has given a summary of their contents (Proceedings of the Linnæan Society, 112th Session, 1900; [Bibliography, No. 204]) found them rather disappointing, since they dealt mainly with personal and domestic matters, and were written in a style characterized as "fantastic and unnatural." Through the kindness of my esteemed friend, George E. Bullen, Esq., of the Hertfordshire County Museum, St. Albans, and through the courtesy of the Council of the Linnæan Society and its secretary, Dr. Daydon Jackson, I am able to reproduce transcripts of the most interesting of these letters, which readers in America will, I believe, find interesting because of their personal details. I am indebted also for their good offices to John Hopkinson, F.L.S., and to William Rowan, Esq.

From the context of the nine letters which are here reproduced without change, it is evident that Audubon paid little attention to grammar, syntax, or orthography, but if the reader will compare the letters written before and after 1830, or before and after his first serious discipline in English composition (see [Chapters XXIII] and [XXIX]), he will find marked improvement in all these respects.

[355] Swainson's house has been kindly identified by my friend, Mr. George E. Bullen, to whom I am indebted also for an interesting photograph, taken from an old print. Mrs. Swainson, who died February 12, 1835, was buried in the parish church, with which she was closely identified, at London Colney, and a tablet to her memory is still to be seen there. Swainson probably preferred the historic associations of Tyttenhanger, a name originally applied to the manor and manor house of the Abbot of St. Albans, a famous abbey property acquired before the Conquest, with a history extending over six hundred years, but he did not live there. The oldest resident now on the spot, a man over ninety, told Mr. Bullen that as a boy he often collected butterflies, moths and other specimens of natural history which he took to "Highfield Hall," and was always paid by one of the Swainson children. Since Swainson's time the original house, which was approached by a long walk, has become almost unrecognizable, having received an addition to one side; the grass land which then surrounded it has been converted into beautiful lawns.

[356] See [Bibliography, No. 95].

[357] See [Chapter XXIX].

[358] See [Vol. II, p. 130].

[359] See [Note, Vol. I, p. 364].

[360] Fauna Boreali-Americana; or the Zoology of the northern parts of British America; Part Second, "The Birds;" by William Swainson and John Richardson (London, 1831).

[361] Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. i, p. 306.

[362] See [Vol. I, p. 3].

[363] Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. i, p. 323.

[364] See [Bibliography, No. 93a].

[365] The three volumes of this series bear date of 1832-33, but the preface is inscribed "Tittenhanger Green St. Albans, 24th July, 1829."

[366] Mary F. Bradford, Audubon ([Bibl. No. 85]).

[367] Published originally by Ruthven Deane ([Bibl. No. 218]), The Auk, vol. xxii, 1905.

[368] See "The Great Pine Swamp," and "Great Egg Harbour," Ornithological Biography ([Bibl. No. 2]), vol. i, p. 52, and vol. iii, p. 606.

[369] Though the year is not usually indicated on the originals, the following drawings probably belong to this period:

• Black Poll Warbler, New Jersey, May.
• Wood Pewee Flycatcher, New Jersey, May.
• Small Green-crested Flycatcher, New Jersey, May.
• Golden-crowned Thrush, New Jersey, May.
• Warbling Flycatcher, Vireo gilvus, New Jersey, May 23.
• Yellow-breasted Chat, New Jersey, June 7.
• Sea Side Finch, Great Egg Harbour, June 14.
• Marsh Wren, New Jersey, June 22.
• Bay-winged Bunting, Great Egg Harbour, June 26.
• Canada Flycatcher, Great Pine Swamp, August 1.
• Pine Swamp Warbler, Great Pine Swamp, August 11.
• Black and Yellow Warbler, Great Pine Swamp, August 12.
• Hemlock Warbler, Great Pine Swamp, August 12.
• Autumnal Warbler, Great Pine Swamp, August 20.
• Connecticut Warbler, New Jersey, September 22.
• Mottled Owl, New Jersey, October.

[370] Though Audubon said that he spent only six weeks in the forest, the indications upon his drawings imply a longer period.

[371] At this time Audubon intended to figure, in full size and natural colors, the eggs of the "Birds of America," for which the concluding numbers of his plates had been reserved, but when the time came, these numbers had to be given over to new acquisitions, so the eggs were eventually crowded out.

[372] At one time in possession of Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, who received it from Mrs. Audubon; given verbatim by Elliott Coues ([Bibl. No. 43]), Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, vol. v, 1880.

[373] Harlan's Hawk, or the Black Warrior, is now regarded as a southern variety of the Red-tailed Hawk, and is designated under the trinomen, Buteo borealis harlani.

[374] Published by Ruthven Deane ([Bibl. No. 217]), The Auk, vol. xxii, 1905.

[375] Thomas B. Thorpe ([Bibl. No. 64]), Godey's Lady's Book, vol. xlii, 1851.

[376] While in Paris in 1828, Audubon wrote on October 26 that he had received a call from "a M. Pitois, who came to look at my book, with a view to becoming my agent here; Baron Cuvier recommended him strongly, and I have concluded a bargain with him. He thinks he can procure a good number of subscribers. His manners are plain, and I hope he will prove an honest man." See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and his Journals ([Bibl. No. 86]), vol. i, p. 339.

[377] Henry Augustus Havell, a younger brother of Robert Havell, Junior; see [Vol. II, p. 191].

[378] See Lucy B. Audubon, ed., Life of John James Audubon, the Naturalist ([Bibl. No. 73]), p. 203. Since black slaves were the only domestics available in the South at that time, it is probable that the "servants" referred to were employed by Mrs. Audubon at her "Beechgrove" school.

[379] See [Vol. I, p. 396].

[380] See [Vol. II, p. 38].

[381] His correspondence with William Swainson from this point, and the history of his letterpress so far as that naturalist was concerned, will be unfolded later (see [Chapter XXIX]).

[382] See [Chapter XXVIII, p. 87].

[383] See [Chapter XXX].

[384] The first volume of the Ornithological Biography in the European edition bears the imprint of "Adam Black, 55 North Bridge, Edinburgh;" in the four subsequent volumes this was changed to "Adam and Charles Black," while the entire work was printed by "Neill & Co., Printers, Old Fish Market, Edinburgh." See [Bibliography, No. 2].

[385] American Ornithology, or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States. By Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte. Edited by Robert Jameson ... Regius Professor of Natural History in the University of Edinburgh. Appearing as vols. lxviii-lxxi of Constable's Miscellany, 4 vols., 18mo., Edinburgh and London, 1831. This was the fourth (?) edition of Wilson's work, and the first (?) to appear in Europe; with portrait of Wilson and vignettes on titles engraved by Lizars, memoir of Wilson by W. M. Hetherington, and extracts from Audubon, Richardson, and Swainson.

The plates of this edition were issued in numbers, under title of Illustrations of American Ornithology; reduced from the work of Wilson; 18mo., Edinburgh and London (1831). In a notice of the first number which appeared in the Caledonian Mercury (Edinburgh) for Oct. 29, 1831, it was stated that the plates were issued in small size to be bound up with Jameson's edition of the text, and that they were intended "for a different class of purchasers from those likely to take the folio edition, then being brought out by the publishers of Constable's Miscellany. The plates were engraved in line and executed in a very superior style, both plain and colored."

[386] American Ornithology; or Natural History of the Birds of the United States, by Alexander Wilson, with a Continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano. The Illustrative Notes and Life of Wilson by Sir William Jardine, 3 vols., 8vo., London and Edinburgh, 1832.

The second (?) European edition of Wilson and Bonaparte, with 97 hand-colored plates engraved by Lizars. The Caledonian Mercury in noticing the work, October 29, 1831, said: "It must be highly gratifying to the friends and connections of poor Sandy Wilson to see such honor, at last, paid to his memory in his native land."

[387] Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano. With the addition of numerous Recently Discovered Species, and Representations of the Whole Sylva of North America. By Captain Thomas Brown [etc., etc.]. Folio, with engraved title, engraved dedication, index, and 124 engraved and hand-colored plates. Edinburgh, Frazer & Co., 54 North Bridge, William Curry, Jun'r & Co., Dublin & Smith, Elder & Co., 65 Cornhill, London, MDCCCXXXV.

It is stated by the editor of this extraordinary work that he had added 161 birds, and that 87 have been considerably enlarged. There are 167 representations of American trees and shrubs, said to have been copied for the most part from Michaux' Silva. The striking Hibiscus grandiflorus (plate xli) was taken without acknowledgment from Audubon's drawing of the Blue-winged Warbler (The Birds of America, plate xx). For the most part the figures of birds are redrawn from Wilson and Bonaparte and given new positions and backgrounds. A few of the plates, as that of the California Vulture (no. 1), bear the legend, "Drawn by Captn. Tho. Brown;" all are uneven, and many extremely poor in execution, the fourteen by W. H. Lizars being the best. J. B. Kidd, for a time associated with Audubon (see [Vol. I, p. 446]) is credited with four plates; other engravers employed on the work were James Turvey, who executed the elaborate title, Samuel Milne, James Mayson, R. Scott, J. & J. Johnstone, E. Mitchell, William Davie, S. A. Miller, John Miller, Audw. Kilgour, Wm. Warwick, and W. McGregor. Plate xiv, the Snowy Owl, Strix nyctea, engraved by the editor, has the interest of a caricature. Some plates show as many as fourteen birds in a medley of brilliant foliage, flowers and fruits. The violence of the coloring is often such as to destroy the effect of the best plates, and gaudy butterflies flit through the pages as if they were the common food of every species, not excluding the American grouse (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 359]).

Captain Brown's Illustrations were said by a writer in the Edinburgh Literary Journal for April 9, 1831, "to form a companion to the letterpress in Constable's Miscellany (see [Note, Vol. I, p. 442]); price, colored, 15 shillings; plain, 10s. 6d. A few in elephant folio (same size as Selby's British Ornithology); colored, 1 guinea. To be completed in 10 parts, each containing 5 colored plates; 22 inches long by 17 inches broad, being considered more than double the size of the original work." The first number of this work was reviewed in the London Literary Gazette for October 8, 1831, when it was said that in it were represented 25 birds, 13 forest trees, and 12 insects; the completed work would comprehend "all the forest trees of America, with their fruits, together with the principal insects of the country," as well as all the birds that had been discovered up to the time of issue.

Brown's piratical work must have had a very limited circulation, since it is now so rare that not even the British Museum possesses a copy, and, so far as known, it is not found in any public library of the United States. I was told at Wheldon's, the London shop devoted to works on natural history, that but two copies had ever been handled, and that they commanded a high price. The work was originally sold at £26. The only copy known to me is in the library of the Zoological Society in London, from which the present citation is made; on one of its fly-leaves is written this note: "I have seen the wrapper of No. 1 of this work. It is dated 1831. There is no information as to its contents. C. Davis Sanborn. 22.5.05." This copy was referred to by Dr. Theodore Gill; see The Osprey, vol. v, pp. 31 and 109 (Washington, 1900 and 1901). Dr. Walter Faxon has traced two other copies, one formerly in possession of Professor Alfred Newton, and another, but very imperfect set, in a private library at Tarrytown, New York. According to Faxon, a single brown paper wrapper preserved in the Tarrytown copy bears a full printed title, which differs, however, from that which was subsequently engraved for the completed work; for fuller citation, see "A Rare Work on American Ornithology," The Auk, vol. xx (1903), pp. 236-241.

Mr. Ruthven Deane has written me that several years ago he secured in New York a fragment of this work, consisting of the paper wrappers of four Parts, Nos. 1-4, the last three of which contained five plates each; there were in addition 10 scattered plates, making 25 plates in all; the price of "21 Shillings" is printed on each of the wrappers, which also bear the date "1831," but no titles.

Another pirated work, Illustrations of the Genera of Birds, by the same author, was begun in 1845, but met with even less success, and was never completed; this was taken from A List of the Genera of Birds, published in 1840 by George Robert Gray, and according to Alfred Newton (A Dictionary of Birds, London, 1896, p. 30, note) was "discreditable to all concerned with it."

[388] See Ruthven Deane ([Bibl. No. 209]), The Auk, vol. xviii (1901). The extract is from a letter dated "Edinburgh, 22 Warriston Crescent 7th May, 1831."

[389] Kidd, who was twenty-three at the time he began to work for Audubon, died in 1889, when he had attained his eighty-first year.

[390] See [Chapter XXVII, p. 62].

[391] An indication of the time of this visit is given by the following inscription written in the copy of the first volume of the Ornithological Biography, which was presented to Cuvier at this time:

To
Baron G. Cuvier,
with the highest respect of the author.—
Paris—17 th. May, 1831.

[392] On Wednesday evening, July 27, 1831, Audubon sent the following note to Mr. Harris: "Come to meet me tomorrow, precisely at twelve o'clock, at our lodgings, 121 Great Portland street."

[393] For the perusal of this letter the reader is indebted, as in so many other instances, to Mr. Ruthven Deane.