LAST VISIT TO COUERON 133 
them jointly by the Lieutenant, his wife, and, in this 
instance, the aged father of Ferdinand, under date of 
April 4, 1806.7 According to the terms of this admira- 
bly executed paper the partners were entitled to conduct 
all the affairs of the grantors in reference to their prop- 
erty in the United States to the best of their judgment 
and ability; to carry on the “Mill Grove” farm, to the 
extent of their part ownership in the estate, or to dis- 
pose of this interest; “to exploit or cause to be exploited 
the mine recently discovered on the said farm, to con- 
sult in every important matter Mr. Miers Fisher, mer- 
chant of Philadelphia,—as a common friend and good 
counsellor, to keep all necessary books and registers, 
and at the end of each year, or sooner, to strike a bal- 
ance of the receipts and expenses of the said farm and 
the exploitation of the mine, should there be reason 
for it.” 
To secure at this time the necessary passports for 
their young men no doubt taxed all the resources of 
the elder Audubon; Rozier’s, said the naturalist, was 
written in Dutch, of which he did not understand a 
single word, while his own letter stated that he was born 
in New Orleans. These subterfuges worked so well 
that the inspection officer, after reading Audubon’s pa- 
per, promptly offered him his congratulations, adding 
™For the full text of these two documents, which are so interest- 
ing for our story, see Appendix I, Documents Nos. 9 and 10; and for 
translations, Documents Nos. 9a and 10a. For the privilege of examining 
and reproducing the first of these papers I am indebted to Mr. Charles A. 
Rozier, of St. Louis, and for the second, as well as the power of attorney 
of 1805 (see Document No. 8), referred to earlier, to Mr. Tom J. Rozier, 
of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri. In the case of this second warrant it will be 
noticed that the grantors signed only the minute which was filed with the 
notaries, who, with the judge of the Court of the First Instance, affixed 
their names to the document itself. No better illustration could be given 
of the dignity which the French attach to the office of notary, to the honored 
incumbents of which their private affairs are unreservedly entrusted, than 
this elaborate judicial document. 
