In 1815 was fought the famous battle of Waterloo, and in the same year
Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the island-rock of Saint Helena. Many
French officers, who had followed the fortunes of the great adventurer,
at that time emigrated to America. Most of these, as was very natural,
sought the French settlements on the Mississippi, and there made their
homes for life. Among them was one named Landi, who had been a colonel
of chasseurs in Napoleon's army. He was by birth a Corsican; and it was
through his being a friend and early acquaintance of one of the
Bonaparte family that he had been induced to become an officer in the
French army--for in his youth he had been fonder of science than
soldiering.
While campaigning in Spain, Landi had married a Basque lady, by whom he
had three children, all sons. Their mother died before the battle of
Waterloo was fought; so that when Landi emigrated to America his family
consisted of his three sons alone.
He first went to Saint Louis, but after a while moved down the river to
Point Coupee, in Louisiana, where he purchased the house we have just
described, and made it his home.
Let me tell you that he was not in any circumstances of necessity.
Previous to his departure for America, he had sold his patrimonial
estates in Corsica for a sum of money--enough to have enabled him to
live without labour in any country, but particularly in that free land
of cheap food and light taxation--the land of his adoption. He was,
therefore, under no necessity of following any trade or profession in
his new home--and he followed none. How then did he employ his time? I
will tell you. He was an educated man. Previous to his entering the
French army he had studied the natural sciences. He was a _naturalist_.
A naturalist can find employment anywhere--can gather both instruction
and amusement where others would die of _ennui_ and idleness. Remember!
there are "sermons in stones, and books in running brooks." He was not
a closet naturalist either. Like the great Audubon he was fond of the
outside world. He was fond of drawing his lessons from Nature herself.
He combined a passion for the chase with his more delicate taste for
scientific pursuits; and where could he have better placed himself to
indulge in these than in the great region of the Mississippi valley,
teeming with objects of interest both to the hunter and the naturalist?
In my opinion, he made good choice of his home.
Well, between hunting, and fishing, and stuffing his birds, and
preserving the skins of rare quadrupeds, and planting and pruning his
trees, and teaching his boys, and training his dogs and horses, Landi
was far from being idle. His boys, of course, assisted him in these
occupations, as far as they were able. But he had another assistant--
Hugot.
Who was Hugot? I shall describe Hugot for your benefit.
Hugot was a Frenchman--a very small Frenchman, indeed--not over five
feet four inches in height. He was dapper and tidy--had a large
aquiline nose, and, notwithstanding his limited stature, a pair of
tremendous moustachios, that curved over his mouth so as almost to hide
it. These gave him a somewhat fierce aspect, which, combined with his
upright carriage, and brisk mechanical-like movements, told you at once
what Hugot had been--a French soldier. He was, in fact, a _ci-devant_
corporal of chasseurs. Landi had been his colonel. The rest you will
easily guess. He had followed his old leader to America, and was now
his man for everything. It was not often that you could see the
naturalist without also seeing Hugot's great moustachios close by his
elbow. It would have killed Hugot to have been separated for any length
of time from his old colonel.
Of course Hugot accompanied his master in all his hunting expeditions.
So, too, did the boys, as soon as they were able to sit upon a horse.
On these occasions the house would be shut up, for there was no
housekeeper nor any other domestic about the establishment. It would
remain thus for days, sometimes for weeks together--for the naturalist
with his party often made distant excursions into the surrounding
forests. They would return laden with spoils--skins of birds and
beasts, plants, and rare geological specimens. Then whole days would be
spent in the arrangement of these new acquisitions. Thus did Landi and
his family pass their time.
Hugot was cook, valet, groom, butler, and errand boy. I have already
stated that no other domestic, male or female, lived in the house:
Hugot, therefore, was chambermaid as well. His manifold occupations,
however, were not so difficult to fulfil as might at first appear. The
Colonel was a man of simple habits. He had learned these when a
soldier, and he brought up his sons to live like himself. He ate plain
food, drank only water, and slept upon a camp-bed with a buffalo-robe
and a blanket. A laundress in Point Coupee kept the linen clean; and
Hugot was not near so busy with house affairs as you might suppose. He
made daily journeys to the village--to the market, and the post-office,
from which he often brought letters, many of them with large seals, and
the arms of a prince upon them! Sometimes, too, after a steamer had
called at the landing, parcels arrived containing books--scientific
books they were--or curious instruments. Notwithstanding all this,
there was nothing mysterious about the life of the hunter-naturalist.
He was no misanthrope. He often visited the village, and would gossip
with old hunters and others who lived there. The villagers knew him as
the "old Colonel," and respected him. They only wondered at his tastes
as a naturalist, which to them seemed strange. They wondered, too, how
he managed to keep house without a maid-servant. But the Colonel did
not trouble his head about their conjectures. He only laughed at their
curious inquiries, and remained on as good terms as ever. His boys,
too, as they grew up became great favourites with all. They were the
best shots of their age, could ride a horse with any, could swim the
Mississippi, paddle a canoe, fling a lasso, or spear a catfish, as
though they had been full-grown men. They were, in fact, boy-men; and
as such were regarded by the simple villagers, who instinctively felt
the superiority which education and training had given to these youths
over their own uneducated minds. The boys, notwithstanding these
advantages, were affable with the villagers; hence the respect in which
they were universally held.
None of his neighbours ever visited the Colonel, except on matters of
business. Indeed he had no visitors of any sort, if we except one or
two of his former military associates, who lived at New Orleans, and
came up to his house about once a-year to talk over old times, and taste
his venison. On such occasions "Napoleon le Grand" was of course the
main subject of conversation. Like all old soldiers of the Empire,
Landi worshipped Napoleon; but there was one of the Bonaparte family for
whom the naturalist entertained a still higher feeling of regard,
amounting in fact to sincere friendship. This was Charles Lucien,
prince of Musignano.
Not all the Bonapartes have been bad. Some of the members of that
remarkable family have given evidence to the world that they were the
possessors of noble virtue. The quiet researches of the Prince of
Musignano as a student of natural history, may be looked upon as so many
conquests in the kingdom of Nature; and though they have been eclipsed
by the more brilliant and sanguinary triumphs of the Emperor, yet do
they far more entitle him to the gratitude and respect of men. He was
the true hero of the hunter-naturalist Landi.
For many years did Colonel Landi lead the life we have described. An
event at length happened that was near proving fatal to him. He had
been wounded in the leg during his campaigns in the Peninsula. A fall
from his horse reopened this wound, and amputation became necessary.
This saved his life, but he could no longer partake of the amusements of
the chase, although still able to indulge in the more delicate pursuits
of the naturalist. With his wooden leg he was able to hobble about the
house and lawn, prune the trees, and attend to his pets that had grown
to be quite numerous, while Hugot at all times followed him about like
his shadow. The boys, however, went abroad on hunting expeditions, and
collected specimens as formerly; and the life of all went on pretty much
as usual.
Thus it was when I first became acquainted with the naturalist, his man
Hugot, and his three sons--the _Boy Hunters_, the heroes of our little
book.
Young reader, permit me to introduce you to a more intimate acquaintance
with them. I fancy you will like them--all three--and be happy for some
time in their society.