120 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



When the preceding letter was written young Audu- 

 bon was on his way to France, to protest, as he said, 

 against Dacosta's treatment of him. At the date of the 

 letter which follows, he was at Coueron, hunting birds 

 with Dr. d'Orbigny. 



Jean Audubon to Francis Dacosta 



Nantes, 14 June, 1805 

 To Mr. Dacosta, Philadelphia : 



I have received, at this very moment, your letter of the 

 8th of April. I have replied to your preceding by duplicate. 

 Like yourself I am greatly astonished that you should not have 

 received the contracts which I forwarded to you at once. I 

 have reserved copies of these papers, which I have literally 

 copied. 



If I had the least idea that they would not reach you, and 

 that an accident had befallen the ship, I should forward them 

 in duplicate, but as this boat, at the time of its departure, was 

 long delayed by the embargoes as well as by bad weather, I 

 am persuaded that this is the sole cause, and that they will 

 have reached you since. 



You are about to appeal to the supreme court to prove 

 your ownership; is there a living being who can contest it? 

 If our deeds, granted in France, have not their full force in 

 that country, nothing can annul them for us who are French. 

 You shall do in this matter what you like; the greatest objec- 

 tion is this, that it stops your operations ; but who is to blame? 

 It is due to distance, and not to any negligence. 



You say that you will do nothing until you have these 

 documents ; if your intention is to work for our benefit, as you 

 say in your preceding, a company still being disagreeable [to 

 you], that ought not to stop you ; you have every power, [and] 

 time lost is irreparable. I am much annoyed at the delay that 

 this Mr. Miers Fisher causes you ; as you say, he is an honest 

 man, but negligent, and this in consequence of his age, and 

 absorption in his great business. 



