FOREWORD AND POSTSCRIPT lxv 



then fifty-three years old, which would also point to the same 

 birth date of 1785. 



On June 4 1826, at sea, when on his way to England and 

 to fame, Audubon wrote : "We are a few miles south of the 

 Line for the second time in my life. — What ideas it conveys to 

 me of my birth, and the expectations of my younger days." If 

 this statement is true, it would explode the Audubon-Dauphin 

 hypothesis, unless its proponents can explain how the boy 

 prince could ever have been south of that Line before 1826. 



In a letter to his wife, written from New Orleans in 1837, 

 as noted by Mr. Arthur, Audubon spoke of that town as "my 

 natal city," and local newspapers of the time hailed him as a 

 native of Louisiana. Moreover, Cuvier, in his report on The 

 Birds of America to the Ro} r al Academy of Sciences of Paris, 

 September 22, 1828, made the same statement, which in this 

 case could have come only from Audubon himself. When he 

 sailed from Nantes for the United States with Rozier in 1806, 

 his passport, which his father had procured for him, indicated 

 that he was born in New Orleans. 



To many it would seem strange that J. J. Audubon should 

 have found so close a resemblance between himself and Jean 

 Audubon unless his father by adoption were his "real father." 

 Writing in 1820, Audubon said that "Major Croghan of Ken- 

 tucky told me often that he [Jean Audubon] looked much like 

 me and he was particularly well acquainted with him." In his 

 "Myself" sketch he also said : "In personal appearance my 

 father and I were of the same height and stature, being five 

 feet, ten inches, erect and with muscles of steel. ... In temper 

 we much resembled each other also." One day in October, 

 1826, when Audubon returned to his rooms in Edinburgh and 

 looked into a mirror, he saw, as he recorded in his journal, not 

 only his own face, but "such a strong resemblance to that of 

 my venerated father that I almost imagined that it was he 

 that I saw ; the thoughts of my mother came to me, my sister, 

 and my young days, — all was at hand, yet so far away." It 

 should be added that a year and half later, at Edinburgh also, 



