100 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



phia," and to the hands of this trustworthy man he now 

 confided his son. Accordingly, when young Audubon 

 had been nursed back to health, word was sent to his 

 father's friend, who came in his carriage and drove the 

 lad to his own home in the outskirts of Philadelphia. To 

 follow the account which the naturalist gave, when writ- 

 ing of this visit a quarter of a century later, his host, 

 finding his charge to be a comely youth, and having a 

 daughter "of no mean appearance," proposed that he 

 should remain with them and become one of the family. 

 Audubon seems to have suspected that this was a pre- 

 meditated scheme to entangle him in marriage, and as 

 he had no liking for the severity of Quaker manners, 

 determined to make his escape. This, he said, was finally 

 accomplished by appealing to his own rights and to the 

 honest Quaker's sense of duty in seeing him established 

 on the estate which his father had designed for him. 

 Though effective for the time, as will presently appear, 

 this appeal was quite fanciful, for Jean Audubon's ideas 

 concerning the future of his son were of a more practical 

 character, and he had no intention at this time of estab- 

 lishing him at "Mill Grove," which was soon to be sold. 

 The friend to whom the following letter was addressed 

 is implored to aid in finding a good American family 

 in which his son could acquire the English language as 

 a step to entering trade: 3 



This will be handed to you by my son, to whom, I request 

 you will render every service in your power, wishing that you 

 shd. join Mr. Miers Fisher to procure him a good and healthy 

 place where he might learn english. I come to point out to 



8 The rough draft of a letter in English, evidently written by Lieutenant 

 Audubon to be delivered by his son to the ship's captain, and probably 

 in duplicate to his agent, Miers Fisher, but bearing no name or date, 

 (Lavigne MSS.) 



