If I had the least idea that they would not reach you, and that an accident had befallen the ship, I should forward them in duplicate, but as this boat, at the time of its departure, was long delayed by the embargoes as well as by bad weather, I am persuaded that this is the sole cause, and that they will have reached you since.
You are about to appeal to the supreme court to prove your ownership; is there a living being who can contest it? If our deeds, granted in France, have not their full force in that country, nothing can annul them for us who are French. You shall do in this matter what you like; the greatest objection is this, that it stops your operations; but who is to blame? It is due to distance, and not to any negligence.
You say that you will do nothing until you have these documents; if your intention is to work for our benefit, as you say in your preceding, a company still being disagreeable [to you], that ought not to stop you; you have every power, [and] time lost is irreparable. I am much annoyed at the delay that this Mr. Miers Fisher causes you; as you say, he is an honest man, but negligent, and this in consequence of his age, and absorption in his great business.
We now return to Mr. David Ross,[98] who in his letter tells a pack of lies. At the close of 1789 I presented myself at his house with the power of attorney of Mr. Formon,[99] when we settled the business of the "Count of Artois," and the "Annette."[100] There never has been, as he said, any dissolution of the partnership between Mr. Formon and myself. I settled the accounts at that time both with him and with Samuel Plaisance concerning these vessels, with the exception of a residue of three thousand francs which are due me from Mr. Edward, their associate, who died at London. When I asked him for his certificates, he gave me for excuse that they were at the iron factory above Richmond, and that he had given Mr. Formon a private obligation that he would be very glad to have an exchange for the certificates. This affair has rested there ever since, and according to his letter Mr. Formon has taken out seven thousand, four hundred dollars, which exceeds his share by 1,650 dollars. If the estate of Mr. Formon is not without resources, it is to his heirs that you must apply for this overdraft, and get from Mr. David Ross all that you can, for with such people one cannot rely upon getting anything except with iron hooks.
The son-in-law of Mr. Formon doubtless will have found among his papers all that constitutes the legal basis of my portion; his certificates, his letter of attorney prove it, and this is a title, and I believe that I have proofs by accounts current. I salute you.
Jean Audubon to Francis Dacosta
Nantes, 22 June, 1805
To Mr. Dacosta:
I have just received your letter of April 23, and hasten to reply to it, in order to prove to you that not one of yours has been neglected, which could be readily seen by my copybook. I am not surprised that at this time you have not received your papers, because they cannot have left before the 10th or 15th of last March, having been held up by the embargoes and the bad weather, as you will see by the date of the letters which accompany them.