124 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



father to get rid of him, which I fortunately accom- 

 plished at sight of my kind parent. A greater scoundrel 

 than Dacosta never probably existed, but peace be with 

 his soul." In one respect only, said Audubon, did he 

 receive any sympathy from his guardian: Dacosta com- 

 mended his drawings of birds. "One morning," Audu- 

 bon relates, "when I was drawing a figure of the Ardea 

 herodias [the great blue heron] , he assured me that the 

 time might come when I should be a great American nat- 

 uralist"; however curious it might appear, he adds, that 

 praise "from the lips of such a man should affect me, I 

 assure you that they had great weight with me and I felt 

 a certain degree of pride in these words even then." 



To follow Audubon's story further, not only did Da- 

 costa take control of his finances, but he interfered with 

 his personal liberty, first by objecting to his proposed 

 marriage to Lucy Bakewell, and then by cutting off his 

 stipend when he rebelled. 14 Audubon, being thorough- 

 ly aroused, determined to return to France and lay 

 the case before his father in person. With this end in 

 view he walked to Philadelphia, whither Dacosta had 

 gone, to demand the money necessary to take him to 

 Nantes. He was given, as he says, what purported to 

 be a letter of credit to a Mr. Kauman, an agent and 

 banker in New York. Returning with his letter to 

 "Mill Grove," he then started on foot for New York, 

 where he arrived on the evening of the third day. While 

 there he stayed at the house of Mrs. Palmer, 15 "a lady of 



14 In the light of the preceding letters, Dacosta would appear in these 

 respects to have been only attempting to carry out his instructions. 



"Probably Sarah White Palmer, Benjamin Bakewell's sister-in-law, 

 and widow of the Rev. John Palmer, who at one time was associated 

 with Joseph Priestley in editing the Theological Repository, an organ of 

 the Unitarians. Her son-in-law, Thomas W. Pears, was later a partner in 

 Audubon's business ventures at Henderson, Kentucky. Her grave is in 

 the Bakewell burying plot at "Fatland Ford." 



