10 



AUDUBON 



How long my father remained in the service, it is impos- 

 sible for me to say. The different changes occurring at the 

 time of the American Revolution, and afterward during that in 

 France, seem to have sent him from one place to another as if 

 a foot-ball; his property in Santo Domingo augmenting, how- 

 ever, the while, and indeed till the liberation of the black slaves 

 there. 



During a visit he paid to Pennsylvania when suffering from the 

 effects of a sunstroke, he purchased the beautiful farm of Mill 

 Grove, on the Schuylkill and Perkiomen streams. At this place, 

 and a few days only before the memorable battle (j^V) of Valley 

 Forge, General Washington presented him with his portrait, now 

 in my possession ; and highly do I value it as a memento of that 

 noble man and the glories of those days.^ At the conclusion of 

 the war between England and her child of the West, my father 

 returned to France and continued in the employ of the naval de- 

 partment of that country, being at one time sent to Plymouth, 

 England, in a seventy-five-gun ship to exchange prisoners. This 

 was, I think, in the short peace that took place between Eng- 

 land and France in 1801. He returned to Rochefort, where 

 he lived for several years, still in the employ of government. 

 He finally sent in his resignation and returned to Nantes and La 

 Gerb^ti^re. He had many severe trials and afflictions before his 

 death, having lost my two older brothers early in the French 

 Revolution ; both were officers in the army. His only sister was 

 killed by the Chouans of La Vendue," and the only brother he 

 had was not on good terms with him. This brother resided at 



^ The family still own this portrait, of which Victor G. Audubon writes : 

 " This portrait is probably the first one taken of that great and good man, 

 and although the drawing is hard, the coloring and costume are correct, I 

 have no doubt. It was copied by Greenhow, the sculptor, when he was 

 preparing to model his ' Washington ' for the Capitol, and he considered 

 it as a valuable addition to the material already obtained. This por- 

 trait was painted by an artist named Polk, but who or what he was, I 

 know not." 



' There still remain those who recall how Audubon would walk up and 

 down, snapping his fingers, a habit he had when excited, when relating how 

 he had seen his aunt tied to a wagon and dragged through the streets of 

 Nantes in the time of Carrier. 



