BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. Kix 
three of its fasciculi, containing the years 1785, 1786 and 1790, which were lost in the shipwreck of 
the elder Michaux on the coast of Holland. In the fasciculus of 1787, young Michaux’s name ap- 
pears for the first time on the date of May 6th, as accompanying his father in his exploration to the 
sources of the Keovee river. In the next spring, he is seen again with him, journeying into the in- 
terior of Florida. He is, afterwards, mentioned several times, as being retained at the Charleston Nur- 
sery, either on account of ill health, or intrusted with the management of the plantation, during the 
journeys of his indefatigable and ever-moving father. 
In the further perusal of the manuscript, I learn, at the date of the 20th of September, 1789, that, 
on that day, his son walking along the road, was hit by a man shooting at partridges, and that a grain 
of shot had penetrated his left eye, below the pupil. From that date to December following, he occa- - 
sionally speaks of the state of his son, of the treatment applied to his case, and, especially, of the great 
despondency of mind in which the patient had fallen, from the apprehension of losing his eye. But, 
here again we arrive at the third lost fasciculus, and I cannot ascertain the final result of the accident, 
nor at what time, precisely, young Michaux returned to France. 
His return must have taken place in the first three months of 1790, for, in the manuscript of the 
following year, on the 17th of January, the elder Michaux acknowledges the receipt of a letter from 
his son, dated Paris, April, 1790, but nothing more is said about the wounded eye. To that accident, 
which is not generally known, may be attributed the partial deprivation of sight with which Michaux 
was afflicted. 
Young Michaux, therefore, reached his country at the very outbreak of the French revolution, in 
which he is said to have warmly sympathized with the republican party. Such a course was not, per- 
haps, expected from one who had been brought up on a royal domain, and was, to a certain degree, 
indebted to royal mumificence. But, on the other hand, how could the feelings of this generous and 
impressible young man be otherwise enlisted? His exalted patriotism, his ambition to serve his coun- 
try, his frank and bold temper; his love of liberty, which he had imbibed in this free and happy land 
' —all these together must have raised his spirits to a high pitch, in conjunction with the vexation he 
experienced when, on his return, he scarcely found a few remnants of the several hundred thousand 
young trees, which his father and himself had reared, in their American nurseries, and sent home for 
the particular benefit of his country. One half of these had been given away by the Queen to her im- 
perial father of Austria; the rest had been squandered among the minions of the court, to embellish 
their grounds, or shamefully neglected in the royal nurseries of Rambouillet. ; 
In the mean time, the elder Michaux was continuing his explorations in North America. He tra- 
velled in all directions, over more than three thousand miles, during the eleven years which he spent 
on this side of the Atlantic. While thus actively engaged, the political storm, raging in his country, 
had brought on immense changesin his situation. France, ruined by royal profligacy; mvaded by fa- 
mine; deluged with the blood of her best citizens; convulsed by civil war and fighting, single-handed, 
with the whole of Europe, could no longer afford 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 De- 
cember, 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 ve- 
getable treasures which he had forwarded from the United States, and in arranging his materials for 
the history of the North American Vaks, and for his Flora Boreali Americana. In these various la- 
bours, he was assisted by his son, who, in the meantime, was studying medicine under the celebrated 
