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Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographical errors in the editor's text have been
corrected. Inconsistent or incorrect accents, spelling,
capitalization, and punctuation in the original documents
and quotes were left as printed.
Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.
The following apparent spelling inconsistencies were left as printed:
Father Stanilaus and Stanislaus
Trumbull and Trumball
Gwathway's and Gnathway's Hotel
Geoffroy and Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire.
On page 59, March 1749 is an apparent error.
On page 69, alcade should perhaps be alcalde.
On page 370, "as John as concluded" is a possible printer's error.
On page 371, "I now collecting Letters" is a possible printer's error.
On page 372, "as never reachd thee" is a possible printer's error.
In footnote 23, "Formon" is the spelling used in the letter printed in
this volume.
AUDUBON
THE
NATURALIST
[Illustration: John J. Audubon
AFTER THE RARE ENGRAVING BY C. TURNER, A.R.A., OF THE MINIATURE
PAINTED BY FREDERICK CRUIKSHANK, ABOUT 1831; PUBLISHED FOR THE
ENGRAVER BY ROBERT HAVELL, LONDON, 1835.]
AUDUBON
THE
NATURALIST
A HISTORY OF HIS LIFE AND TIME
BY
FRANCIS HOBART HERRICK, Ph.D., Sc.D.
PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY IN WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY,
AUTHOR OF "THE HOME LIFE OF WILD BIRDS," ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
VOLUME I
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
NEW YORK LONDON
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
Printed in the United States of America
TO
ELIZABETH
MY
SISTER
PREFACE
The origin of the gifted ornithologist, animal painter, and writer,
known to the world as John James Audubon, has remained a mystery up to
the present time. In now lifting the veil which was cast over his early
existence, I feel that I serve the cause of historical truth; at the
same time it is possible to do fuller justice to all most intimately
concerned with the story of his life and accomplishments.
The present work is in reality the outcome of what was first undertaken
as a holiday recreation in the summer of 1903. While engaged upon a
research of quite a different character, I reread, with greater care,
Audubon's _Ornithological Biography_, and after turning the leaves of
his extraordinary illustrations, it seemed to me most strange that but
little should be known of the making of so original and masterful a
character. As I was in England at the time some investigations were
undertaken in London, but, as might have been expected, with rather
barren results. After my return to America in the following year the
search was continued, but as it proved equally fruitless here, the
subject was set aside. Not until 1913, when this investigation was
resumed in France, did I meet with success.
Every man, however poor or inconsequential he may appear or be, is
supposed to possess an estate, and every man of affairs is almost
certain to leave behind him domestic, professional, or commercial
papers, which are, in some degree, a mark of his attainments and an
indication of his character and tastes. In the summer of 1913 I went
to France in search of the personal records of the naturalist's father,
Lieutenant Jean Audubon, whose home had been at Nantes and in the little
commune of Couëron, nine miles below that city, on the right bank of the
Loire. The part which Lieutenant Audubon played in the French Revolution
was fully revealed in his letters, his reports to the Central Committee,
and numerous other documents which are preserved in the archives of the
Préfecture at Nantes; while complete records of his naval career both
in the merchant marine and governmental service (_service pour l'État_)
were subsequently obtained at Paris; but at Nantes his name had all but
vanished, and little could be learned of his immediate family, which
had been nearly extinct in France for over thirty years.
Again the quest seemed likely to prove futile until a letter, which I
received through the kindness of Mr. Louis Goldschmidt, then American
Consul at Nantes, to M. Giraud Gangie, _conservateur_ of the public
library in that city, brought a response, under date of December 29,
1913, informing me that two years before that time, he had met by
chance in the streets of Couëron a retired notary who assured him that
he held in possession numerous exact records of Jean Audubon and his
family. The sage Henry Thoreau once remarked that you might search
long and diligently for a rare bird, and then of a sudden surprise the
whole family at dinner. So it happened in this case, and since these
manuscript records, sought by many in vain on this side of the Atlantic,
are so important for this history, the reader is entitled to an account
of them.
Upon corresponding with the gentleman in question, M. L. Lavigne, I
was informed that the documents in his possession were of the most
varied description, comprising letters, wills, deeds, certificates of
births, baptisms, adoptions, marriages and deaths, to the number, it
is believed, of several hundred pieces. This unique and extraordinary
collection of Audubonian records had been slumbering in a house in
the commune of Couëron called "Les Tourterelles" ("The Turtle Doves")
for nearly a hundred years, or since the death of the naturalist's
stepmother in 1821.
Since I was unable to judge of the authenticity of the documents or to
visit France at that time, my friend, Professor Gustav G. Laubscher,
who happened to be in Paris, engaged in investigating Romance literary
subjects, kindly consented to go to Couëron for the purpose of
inspecting them. Monsieur Lavigne had already prepared for me, and
still held, a number of photographs of the most important manuscripts,
which are now for the first time reproduced, and, with the aid of a
stenographer, in the course of two or three days they were able to
transcribe the most essential and interesting parts of this voluminous
material. But at that very moment sinister clouds were blackening the
skies of Europe, and my friend was obliged to leave his task unfinished
and hasten to Paris; when he arrived in that city, on the memorable
Saturday of August 1, 1914, orders for the mobilization of troops had
been posted; it was some time before copies of the manuscripts were
received from Couëron, and he left the French capital to return to
America.
These documents came into the hands of Monsieur Lavigne through his
wife, who was a daughter and legatee of Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, the
second, son of Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, the son-in-law of Lieutenant
and Mme. Jean Audubon. Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, the second, who
died at Couëron in 1892, is thought to have destroyed all letters of
the naturalist which had been in possession of the family and which
were written previous to 1820, when his relations with the elder Du
Puigaudeau were broken off; not a line in the handwriting of John James
Audubon has been preserved at Couëron.
In June and July, 1914, Dr. Laubscher had repeatedly applied to the
French Foreign Office, through the American Embassy at Paris, for
permission to examine the _dossier_ of Jean Audubon in the archives
of the Department of the Marine, in order to verify certain dates in
his naval career and to obtain the personal reports which he submitted
upon his numerous battles at sea, but at that period of strain it was
impossible to gain further access to the papers sought.
Having told the story of the way in which these unique and important
records came into my possession, I wish to express my gratitude to
Professor Laubscher for his able cooperation in securing transcriptions
and photographs, and to Monsieur Lavigne for his kind permission to use
them, as well as for his careful response to numerous questions which
arose in the course of the investigation.
In dealing with letters and documents, of whatever kind, in manuscript,
I have made it my invariable rule to reproduce the form and substance
of the record as it exists as exactly as possible; in translations,
however, no attempt has been made to preserve any minor idiosyncrasies
of the writer. The source of all scientific, literary or historical
material previously published is indicated in footnotes, and the reader
will find copious references to hitherto unpublished documents, which in
their complete and original form, with or without translations, together
with an annotated Bibliography, have been gathered in Appendices at
the end of Volume II. For convenience of reference each chapter has
been treated as a unit so far as the footnotes are concerned, and the
quoted author's name, with the title of his work in addition to the
bibliographic number, has been given in nearly every instance.
Besides the many coadjutors whose friendly aid has been gladly
acknowledged in the body of this work, I now wish to offer my sincere
thanks, in particular, to the Misses Maria R. and Florence Audubon,
granddaughters of the naturalist, who have shown me many courtesies,
and to the Hon. Myron T. Herrick, late American Ambassador to France,
for his kindly assistance in obtaining documentary transcripts from
the Department of the Marine at Paris. I am under special obligations
also to the librarians of the British Museum and Oxford University, the
Linnæan and Zoölogical Societies of London, the Jardin des Plantes at
Paris, the Public Libraries of Boston and New York, and the libraries
of the Historical Societies of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and
Louisiana, as well as to the Director of the Museum of Comparative
Zoölogy of Harvard University, and to the American Museum of Natural
History in New York City, for photographs of paintings and other
objects, for permission to read or copy manuscripts, and for favors of
various sorts. Furthermore, I am indebted to the good offices of Mr.
Ferdinand Lathrop Mayer, Secretary of Legation, Port-au-Prince, and of
M. Fontaine, American Consular Agent at Les Cayes, Haiti, for a series
of photographs made expressly to represent Les Cayes as it appears
today. I would also acknowledge the courtesy of the Corporation of
Trinity Parish, New York, through Mr. Pendleton Dudley, for an excellent
photograph of the Audubon Monument.
I cannot express too fully my appreciation of the hearty response which
the publishers of these volumes have given to every question concerned
with their presentation in an adequate and attractive form, and
particularly to Mr. Francis G. Wickware, of D. Appleton and Company, to
whose knowledge, skill, and unabated interest the reader, like myself,
is indebted in manifold ways.
My friend, Mr. Ruthven Deane, well known for his investigations in
Auduboniana and American ornithological literature, has not only read
the proofs of the text, but has generously placed at my disposal many
valuable notes, references, pictures, letters and other documents,
drawn from his own researches and valuable personal collections. I wish
to express in the most particular manner also my appreciation of the
generous spirit in which Mr. Joseph Y. Jeanes has opened the treasures
in his possession, embracing not only large numbers of hitherto
unpublished letters, but an unrivaled collection of early unpublished
Audubonian drawings, for the enrichment and embellishment of these
pages. For the loan or transcription of other original manuscript
material, or for supplying much needed data of every description, I am
further most indebted to Mr. Welton H. Rozier, of St. Louis; Mr. Tom J.
Rozier, of Ste. Geneviève; Mr. C. A. Rozier, of St. Louis; the Secretary
of the Linnæan Society of London, through my friend, Mr. George E.
Bullen, of St. Albans; Mr. Henry R. Rowland of the Buffalo Society of
Natural Sciences, of Buffalo; Mr. William Beer, of the Howard Memorial
Library, of New Orleans; and Mr. W. H. Wetherill, of Philadelphia.
For the use of new photographic and other illustrative material, I
am further indebted to Mr. Stanley Clisby Arthur, of the Conservation
Commission of Louisiana, and to _Cassinia_, the medium of publication
of the Delaware Valley Ornithological Club.
Through the kindness of Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons I have been
permitted to draw rather freely from _Audubon and His Journals_, by Miss
Maria R. Audubon and Elliott Coues, and to reproduce three portraits
therefrom; original photographs of two of these have been kindly
supplied by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. I also owe to the courtesy of the Girard
Trust Company, of Philadelphia, the privilege of quoting certain letters
contained in William Healey Dall's _Spencer Fullerton Baird_.
To my esteemed colleague, Professor Benjamin P. Bourland, I am under
particular obligations for his invaluable aid in revising translations
from the French and in the transliteration of manuscripts, as well as
for his kindly assistance in correspondence on related subjects. I have
derived much benefit also from my sister, Miss Elizabeth A. Herrick,
who has made many valuable suggestions. To all others who have aided me
by will or deed in the course of this work I wish to express my cordial
thanks.
FRANCIS H. HERRICK.
_Western Reserve University,
Cleveland._
July 2, 1917.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I
PAGE
PREFACE vii
CHRONOLOGY xxv
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Audubon's growing fame—Experience in Paris in
1828—Cuvier's patronage—Audubon's publications—His
critics—His talents and accomplishments—His
Americanism and honesty of purpose—His foibles
and faults—Appreciations and monuments—The Audubon
Societies—Biographies and autobiography—Robert Buchanan
and the true history of his _Life of Audubon_ 1