74 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



afford, was, as I now realize, an absurd spectacle but it was one of 

 my many foibles and I cannot conceal it. I purchased the best 

 horses in the country, and rode well, and felt proud of it; my guns 

 and fishing tackle were equally good, always expensive and richly 

 ornamented, often with silver. Indeed, though in America, I cut 

 as many foolish pranks as a young dandy in Bond Street or Pic- 

 cadilly." 



Audubon spent much of his time with brush and pencil and 

 many of his drawings at Mill Grove were of birds, which con- 

 tinued to attract his attention, although he had apparently no 

 more scientific interest in them than when a boy in France, and it 

 was their portraiture that chiefly concerned him. 



After a short time the elder Audubon sent over from France as 

 a partner and partial guardian a man by the name of Da Costa 

 who soon managed to get the control of affairs at Mill Grove 

 almost entirely into his own hands and proved to be such a rascal 

 that Audubon was forced to seek the aid of friends in order to 

 obtain passage to France, to inform his father of the true character 

 of the man under whose authority he had been placed. Having 

 secured the discharge of the objectionable guardian he remained 

 for two years with his parents "in the very lap of comfort" shoot- 

 ing and drawing zoological subjects, especially birds. A matter of 

 much moment which was also settled during his visit to France 

 was the approval of his proposed marriage to Miss Lucy Bakewell, 

 the daughter of a neighbor at Mill Grove, to whom he had be- 

 come deeply attached. 



Audubon returned to America in 1806 in company with Ferdi- 

 nand Rozier whom his father had selected as his future business 

 partner. 



A brief mercantile experience in the office of Miss Bakewell's 

 uncle gave Audubon "some smattering of business" as he terms 

 it, which his future father-in-law thought very important, if he 

 contemplated the support of a wife, but which Audubon found 

 very uncongenial. This over and impatient to seek his fortune 

 he was married on April 8, 1808, and set out from Mill Grove 

 accompanied by his wife and his business partner and provided 



