FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

Letter 19.
[Letter to Azelie Florian, the youngest daughter of Jean-Baptiste, in Mobile, AL; from
Louis Florent Thierry Dufugeray (1802-1887), in St. Malo. Dufugeray is the first cousin
of Azelia. Letter is in English, typed and in handwritten translation, in the Edward Ladd
collection, Mobile, AL. <strong>The</strong> original letter is not present; it was almost certainly in
French.]
To: Miss Azelia Florian de Pontcadeuc
Mobile, Alabama U.S.A.
Via Havre
St. Malo, October 10, 1842
My dear Cousin,
Your pleasant letter has been received with eagerness by all the family, who request me
to thank you for all the affection it contained, and also for the precious details of our
relatives in the United States – details which are so much more highly prized in our eyes
because they bind the family closer together, when our wide separation tends every day
to eliminate those ties.
I have to also thank you on my own account for the information you had the kindness to
send me about Jean Menard, for which his sister was very grateful.
Monsieur Dufugeray 102 is very appreciative of your gracious remembrance and asked me
before his departure to express his gratitude. Having visited Asia and America he has
lately decided to become acquainted with Africa and is now enroute to Algiers, where he
goes to spend part of the winter, according to his annual habit of emigration. He was two
years in Italy where he went to seek a refuge from the cold of Brittany. Last winter he
spent with us, but notwithstanding his 75 years, eighteen months of repose is too much
for him, so behold, he is again crossing the seas, and with only a servant to accompany
him. He will return to us in the spring, and thanks to his nomad tastes, I would not be
surprised to see him go to Mobile to make you that visit that he has promised. That time
I shall be of the party, if he persists in the project which he has discussed so often.
Now, my dear Cousin, I will comply with your request, that I give you the biography of
the family. Madame Duault, the eldest, still lives in Paris with the sister of her husband.
102 This name likely refers to M. Garnier du Fougeray, parliamentary administrator of the Chambre during
the Restoration and ambassador to Constantinople, where he died in 1842. Garnier du Fougeray adoped
Louis Florent Thierry (first cousin of Azelia) who then added the name Dufougeray to become Louis
Florent Thierry Dufougeray.
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