CHAPTER IX
AUDUBON'S LAST VISIT TO HIS HOME IN FRANCE
Life at Couëron—Friendship of D'Orbigny—Drawings of French birds—D'Orbigny's troubles—Marriage of Rosa Audubon—The Du Puigaudeaus—Partnership with Ferdinand Rozier—Their Articles of Association—They sail from Nantes, are overhauled by British privateers, but land safely at New York—Settle at "Mill Grove."
Reaching his home at Couëron in the spring of 1805, Audubon took his parents completely by surprise. He found his father, then in his sixty-first year, still "hale and hearty," and his "chère maman as fair and good as ever." It was a time of momentous events in France; Napoleon had placed the crown upon his head but a few months before; defeat and victory followed in rapid succession. But this did not prevent the young naturalist from spending a year in "the lap of comfort" at Nantes and in the quiet villa of "La Gerbetière," where as usual he hunted birds and collected objects of natural history of every sort.
At this time also Audubon formed a friendship with a young man after his own heart, Dr. Charles Marie d'Orbigny, who "with his young wife and infant-son" was then living near his home. "The doctor," he said, "was a good fisherman, a good hunter, and fond of all objects in nature. Together we searched the woods, the fields and the banks of the Loire, procuring every bird we could, and I made drawings of every one of them—very bad, to be sure, but still they were of assistance to me."[107]
Charles d'Orbigny, who was Audubon's most intimate early friend and in all probability his father in natural history, was always spoken of in terms of great affection. While at Paris in October, 1829, Audubon learned from the naturalist Lesson that D'Orbigny was then in charge of the museum at La Rochelle and that "his son, Charles, then twenty-one," whom "he had held in his arms many times," was in the city; on October 8 he wrote in his journal: "this morning I had great pleasure in meeting my godson, Charles d'Orbigny. Oh! what past times were brought to my mind."[108]
EARLY UNPUBLISHED DRAWINGS OF FRENCH BIRDS: ABOVE, "LE FRIQUET MÂLE DE BUFFON. THE SEDGE SPARROW. NO. 13. NEAR NANTZ, 1805. J. J. A."; BELOW, "LE ROSSIGNOL DE MURAILLES—DE BUFFON—THE REDSTART. NO. 50. NEAR NANTZ, AUGUST, 1805. J. L. F. A."
Published by courtesy of Mr. Joseph Y. Jeanes.