FLORIAN - The Most Traveled Man on Earth

academy only provisionally. 28 I should like, to sum up, to re-unite all [our family], and
have an extensive concession of some size where our brothers could spend their time
raising cotton or sugar while you and I would have our academy [next door?].
I have already told you how unhappy I am with Mr. Cheriot’s carelessness. Henceforth
address my letters to Mr. Duplanty, _____, Merchant, New York. You can be sure that
he will get them to me.
Above all, do not forget to bring fruit seeds, nuts, kernels, onions, roots, etc. – everything
you can imagine.
I am dying to receive new of you all—to know what you are doing, when you are
leaving, and how and by what route you are coming. I hope at least to have everything
ready to receive you when you arrive. If I have the good fortune to be able to start a
school, then at that point my girls will understand the value of their talents, and I hope
they will hasten to perfect themselves in all subjects! <strong>The</strong>y must be able to help you
teach everything, and to be good teachers.
By the way, marriage is absolutely forbidden by the legislature of Orleans 29 between an
uncle and his niece, thus it is very fortunate that the event [?] didn’t come off. 30 It is the
same everywhere in the United States.
Dear Mother 31 , dear daughters, dear brothers, I embrace you and love you all from the
bottom of my heart.
28
It appears from the somewhat conflicting translations that J-B was contemplating having two institutions,
one run by his wife and one by him, next to each other. But this makes little sense. More likely is that this
sentence is addressed to his brothers-in-law, as is the next sentence, and means that J-B wants the academy
to be co-located with the brothers’ plantation.
29
This territory does not refer to New Orleans, but rather to a larger area of US territory within the
Louisiana Purchase.
30
Oho! It appears that the cryptic comment earlier about daughter Laura Eugenie Florian meant that her
UNCLE, Joseph Marie de Segrais, proposed to Laura and was turned down! Such a marriage would have
been illegal in Louisiana – but apparently not in England, where they were both living?! Joseph was born
in 1777, and hence was 14 years older than Laura, born in 1791. Laura later married a man seven years her
senior, George Phillips Bowers, thus created the line that would lead down to the Toulmins. Thank you,
Laura, for being so wise, and so law abiding, at such a young age!
31
This reference to “Mother” is certainly to the wife of Jean-Baptiste, since his actual mother died at least
16 years earlier.
66