I. '-u. 



164 Biography of F. A. Michaux. 



over more than three thousand miles, during tlie eleven years 

 which lie spent on this side of the Atlantic. While thus actively 

 engaged; the political storm^ raging in his country, had brought 

 on immense changes in his situation. France ruined by royal 

 profligacy; invaded by famine; deluged with the blood of her 

 best citizens ; convulsed by civil war and fighting, single-handed, 

 with the whole of Europe, could no longer atibrd to pay her 

 naturalists abroad. Consequently, Michaux was forgotten, and 

 ceased gradually to receive his salary. After having borrowed 

 money on his own account; after having sacrificed a portion of 

 his own, and of his son's fortunes, he found himself under the 

 necessity of returning to his country. Unfortunately he was 

 shipwrecked on the coast of Holland, and, after having lost the 

 best part of his immense collections, he arrived in Paris on the 

 26th of December, 1796^ after an absence of eleven years and 

 four months. 



On his arrival in his native land, the elder Michaux occupied 

 his time in the cultivation of the vegetable treasures which he 

 had forwarded from the United States, and in arranging his ma- 

 terials for the history of the North American Oaks^ and for his 

 Flora Boreali- Americana. In these various labors, he was assist- 

 ed by his son, who, in the meantime, was studying medicine 

 under the celebrated Corvisart, and attending the clinical lectures 

 of Desault, chief surgeon of the Hotel Dieu, with the view of 

 returning to the United States, and devoting himself to the prac- 

 tice of medicine; but such Avas not his destiny! 



Neither the retired habits of a student, nor the easy and mo- 

 notonous life of a Parisian abode suited temperaments like those 

 of the two Michaux. Such men needed activity and change of 

 scene, even with toils and perils. Both were animated with the 

 same spirit of enterprise, with the same conviction that their 

 efforts, employed in other directions, could afford more benefit 

 to their country; hence, they were endeavoring, through the in- 

 fluence of their numerous friends, to infuse their views and pro- 

 jects into the minds of their fellow members of the Central Soci- 



ety of Agriculture, and of the ministers of Napoleon, then First 



Consul of the French Republic. 



In this finally they both succeeded. The elder Michaux accep- 

 ted a commission of naturalist in the scientific expedition led by 

 Captain Baudin, and bound to the Australian sens, on condition, 

 however, that he would be permitted to remain at the Isle of 

 France, if he desired so to do. Disgusted with Baudin's haughty^ 

 manners and want of courtesy to the scientific corps, Andre 

 Michaux abandoned the expedition at Mauritius, where he re- 

 mained six months, and then started for the island of Madagas- 

 car, which, he thought, would aftbrd him better opportunities of 

 advancing the science of botany, and making himself more use- 

 ful to his country. 



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