Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)Herrick, Francis Hobart
History
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Herrick, Francis Hobart
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
Friendly relations with his former partner in trade were occasionally
renewed by the naturalist in after life. At one of their last meetings,
in 1842, Rozier, who had then returned from France, visited Audubon at
his home on the Hudson, and both were entertained in New York by their
mutual friend, Nicholas Berthoud.
Ferdinand Rozier, with whom we now part company, lived to enjoy abundant
prosperity as a trader and merchant at Ste. Geneviève. Born in Nantes on
November 9, 1777,[210] at the age of twenty-five he entered the French
navy, at a time when Napoleon was contesting with England the supremacy
of the sea. He made numerous voyages, and we hear of him at the Cape of
Good Hope, the Island of France or Mauritius, at Cadiz, Teneriffe, and
at the Island of Bartholomew. Eventually, on April 8, 1804, he embarked
on the cutter _Experiment_, with Captain Upton in charge, bound for the
United States, where he visited a number of American ports, including
Philadelphia and Norfolk. In the following year he returned to France in
the frigate _President_, Captain Gallic Lebrosse, and entered the harbor
of Nantes on March 1, 1805.[211] In the spring of that year John James
Audubon, as we have seen, had also returned to that city, and plans were
eventually laid for their commercial aggrandizement in the New World
which both had so lately visited. To what extent Audubon's dreams failed
of realization may be gathered from the following chapters.
Having settled finally at Ste. Geneviève, Rozier, at thirty-six, married
Constance Roy, a girl of eighteen, who bore him ten children, four of
whom, all octogenarians, were living in 1905. Ferdinand Rozier's thrift
and industry soon brought him substantial rewards. In his earlier days
he is said to have made six journeys to Philadelphia on horseback to
purchase merchandise, and these trading expeditions were uniformly
successful. His trade extended over the whole of Upper Louisiana, and
he lived to see the great growth of Missouri as a sovereign state,
along with the development of the fabulous mineral wealth of the
district.[212]
Rozier's old store at Ste. Geneviève, for long a landmark in that
community and considered a pretentious building in its day, was
undoubtedly built after the date of Audubon's visit. The front was
devoted to the service of customers and a large shed or stock room was
placed at the rear, while the family lived in the main section, which
was entered by a door not shown in our illustration.[213] When this
building was demolished to make way for modern changes, the wooden pins
used in joining the frame were treasured by many as souvenirs of pioneer
times.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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