lxxiv AUDUBON THE NATURALIST 



person in Audubon's life, who knew about his Canadian sojourn. 



"This thesis, if true, provides the explanation of so many 

 inexplicable elements in the life of John James Audubon, that 

 it is with a distinct sense of relief that I offer it as a working 

 hypothesis, in the light of these letters. For, as I have said, 

 no amount of wandering around the countryside of Coueron 

 could have fitted this adolescent boy, John James Audubon, for 

 his future life, and transformed him into one of the most power- 

 ful, resourceful woodsmen the new world possessed. . . . 



"And yet when John James Audubon came to the United 

 States in 1803, when he was barely eighteen years of age, he 

 could traverse the continent alone like an Indian, find his way 

 through trackless forests, swim swollen rivers, shoot with the 

 marksmanship of the wilderness, and he could survive with his 

 naked fists in the primeval forest of North America. His con- 

 tacts with the Indians had the sure touch of easy familiarity; 

 his knowledge of wild life knew no bounds. . . . 



"Where had John James Audubon acquired this forest train- 

 ing? It is my belief that John James Audubon acquired all 

 his forest training in the Selkirk's Settlements, somewhere be- 

 tween 1796 and 1800." 



What an extraordinary picture we have here of the boy 

 "king," whose sister once said that if he had actually escaped 

 from the Temple prison, he could not have lived long on account 

 of his weakened condition : hidden for a time in the heart of 

 Nantes, under the roof of one who was, or who had recently 

 been, an ardent revolutionist; adopted by this very man, Jean 

 Audubon, in place of his own son — about whose fate neither of 

 the writers quoted seems to have thought it necessary to in- 

 quire ; taken secretly to England, where Mrs. Thomas Douglas, 

 later to become the Countess of Selkirk, opens her heart and 

 home to him. Then a mysterious uncle takes him to Santo 

 Domingo, thence to New Orleans, and then up "Old Man River" 

 to that vague destination called "Selkirk's Settlements," where 

 the boy "king" first learned his Indian lore and woodcraft. 



It is sad to relate that this ingenious picture bears no re- 



