BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 57 



When Captain Audubon finally left the West Indies 

 in the autumn of 1789, he took with him, in the care of 

 trustworthy slaves, these two children, Fougere or Jean 

 Rabin, aged four and a half years, and Muguet or 

 Rosa, an infant of less than two. We know that he 

 visited Richmond, Virginia, to collect a long outstanding 

 claim against David Ross, then engaged in an iron in- 

 dustry near that city (see Chapter VIII, p. 121), and 

 it is possible that he traveled by way of New 

 Orleans and the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. After 

 spending some time at the close of this year in the 

 United States, he went to France and made -a home 

 for his children at Nantes. This city became essen- 

 tially their permanent abode until their father's retire- 

 ment from the navy on January 1, 1801, when he finally 

 settled in the little commune of Coueron, on the north 

 bank of the Loire. The storm that burst over Nantes 

 soon after their arrival revealed the true colors of Jean 

 Audubon's patriotism, and the man was seen at his best, 

 as will be related in the following chapter. 



Madame Audubon, who had no children of her own, 

 tenderly received the little ones, thus wafted from over 

 the sea to her door in the Rue de Crebillon. 7 As the 



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.) 



7 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 Francoise Mocquard for five years, beginning June 24, 1799 

 (le 6 Messidor, an 7 ), at four hundred francs per annum. He also dwelt 



