CHAPTER VII 



FIRST VISIT TO THE UNITED STATES, AND LIFE AT 



"MILL GROVE" 



Audubon is sent to the United States to learn English and enter trade — 

 Taken ill— Befriended by the Quakers— Settles at "Mill Grove" farm- 

 Its history and attractions — Studies of American birds begun — En- 

 gagement to Lucy Bakewell — Sports and festivities. 



If there were ever a time when Lieutenant Audubon 

 wished to see his son following the victorious eagles of 

 Napoleon, whom he is said to have idolized, the hated 

 conscription of that day, which was robbing every home 

 in France of its best blood, might well have brought 

 counsels of prudence. Little could the father have 

 thought that by following other eagles of his own choice, 

 his son was destined to add a far greater luster to the 

 family name. Whatever may have turned the scale, in 

 1803 a decision was quickly reached, and the issue was 

 fortunate for the future of natural science in America; 

 it was decided that young Audubon should emigrate 

 at once to the United States, with what end in view we 

 shall soon see expressed in the sailor's own words. Ac- 

 cordingly, to his "intense and indescribable pleasure," 

 the future naturalist, who had now passed his eighteenth 

 birthday, eagerly prepared for the journey, the first of 

 many that were later to become memorable in the annals 

 of American science. No record of this voyage has been 

 preserved, but from evidence derived from a variety of 

 sources we can fix the time as the autumn of 1803. 1 



1 Audubon, writing in 1820, described himself at this time as "a 

 young man of seventeen, sent to America to make money (for such 



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