1382 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
Loyen du Puigaudeau, who was not, however, as the 
naturalist has stated, either “the son of a fallen noble- 
man” or his father’s “secretary.” Du Puigaudeau came 
from a family of merchants in easy circumstances, and 
for a long time lived the life of a country gentleman 
of leisure—for a period at Port Launay, below Couéron, 
and later, after Lieutenant Audubon’s death, at his own 
villa, “Les Tourterelles,” in that commune, not far from 
“La Gerbetiéere.” His father, though of a rich family, 
was not a “gentleman,” that is, a member of the aris- 
tocracy, as the term was then used in France. Du 
Puigaudeau was without any settled business, but his 
revenues, upon which he depended, failed not long after 
the death of his father-in-law. He and young Audubon 
appear to have been good friends for many years, and 
after the latter’s return to America they corresponded 
to as late as 1820, when for some reason their relations 
were broken. 
In the spring of 1806 Lieutenant Audubon arranged 
a business partnership between his son and Ferdinand 
Rozier, to endure for nine years, and also secured pass- 
ports for both to enable them to emigrate immediately 
to the United States. To the same hand can also be 
traced their “Articles of Association,’ which were 
drawn with the utmost care and designed to govern 
them in all their future business relations in the New 
World: these were signed by “Jean Audubon,” and 
“Ferdinand Rozier,” at Nantes, on March 23, 1806. 
Moreover, eight days before they embarked, a second 
and more elaborate letter of attorney was issued to 
the marriage, aforesaid, on the side of the groom, M. André Loyen du 
Puigaudeau, his brother, and M. Honoré Francois Guiraud, his brother- 
in-law; by the side of the bride, her father, and M. Jean Audubon, her 
brother, [and these have] undersigned, together with the bridegroom.” 
Audubon’s signature reads “J. L. J. Audubon.” 
