AUDUBON 



23 



Benjamin Bakewell was a friend of his brother (may you ever 

 be so toward each other). He comforted me much, went with 

 me to the docks to seek a vessel bound to France, and offered 

 me any sura of money I might require to convey me to my father's 

 house. My passage was taken on board the brig " Hope," 

 of New Bedford, and I sailed in her, leaving Da Costa and 

 Kauman in a most exasperated state of mind. The fact is, these 

 rascals intended to cheat both me and my father. The brig 

 was bound direct for Nantes. We left the Hook under a very 

 fair breeze, and proceeded at a good rate till we reached the 

 latitude of New Bedford, in Massachusetts, when my captain 

 came to me as if in despa.ir, and said he must run into port, as 

 the vessel was so leaky as to force him to have her unloaded and 

 repaired before he proc.eded across the Atlantic. Now this was 

 only a trick; my captain was newly married, and was merely 

 anxious to land at New Bedford to spend a few days with his 

 bride, and had actually caused several holes to be bored below 

 water-mark, which leaked enough to keep the men at the pumps. 

 We came to anchor close to the town of New Bedford ; the cap- 

 tain went on shore, entered a protest, the vessel was unloaded, 

 the apertures bunged up, and after a week, which I spent in 

 being rowed about the beautiful harbor, we sailed for La Belle 

 France. A few days after having lost sight of land we were 

 overtaken by a violent gale, coming fairly on our quarter, and 

 before it we scudded at an extraordinary rate, and during the 

 dark night had the misfortune to lose a fine young sailor over- 

 board. At one part of the sea we passed through an immensity 

 of dead fish floating on the surface of the water, and, after nine- 

 teen days from New Bedford, we had entered the Loire, and 

 anchored off Painboeuf, the lower harbor of Nantes. 



On sending my name to the principal officer of the customs, 

 he came on board, and afterward sent me to my father's villa, 

 I^a Gerb^tifere, in his barge, and with his own men, and late that 

 evening I was in the arms of my beloved parents. Although I 

 had written to them previous to leaving America, the rapidity of 

 my voyage had prevented them hearing of my intentions, and to 

 them my appearance was sudden and unexpected. Most wel- 



