lx AUDUBON THE NATURALIST 



inference, supported by other documentary testimony, was that 

 this referred to the identical child who later became John James 

 Audubon and who was baptised in 1800 as Jean Jacques 

 Fougere (Audubon). 



Jean and Anne Moynet Audubon adopted this boy Fougere, 

 then nine years old, and a seven-year-old girl, Muguet or Rosa, 

 born also in Santo Domingo but to another woman, at Nantes 

 on March 7, 1794. 4 



The Jean Rabin alias was used in the six wills drawn by 

 Lieutenant Audubon and his wife, and in the power of attorney 

 of Audubon himself to which I have referred. 5 It is these vari- 

 ous legal documents, usually drawn under oath and attested 

 by witnesses, that Miss Rourke and Mrs. Tyler set aside as "not 

 proven" ; yet they do not hesitate to place Audubon at the 

 foot of a long list of spurious claimants to being the son of 

 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, without a shred of docu- 

 mentary support to such a claim excepting the family tradi- 

 tion based upon extracts from Audubon's private journals 

 which were intended for the perusal of his wife alone — and this 

 in view of the further fact that it has never been definitely 

 proven that the Dauphin did not die in the Temple or shortly 

 after leaving it. 



in 



It is generally assumed that the person whose parents and 

 near relatives are no longer living knows more about his early 

 history than anybody else, and this is generally true, except 

 in the case of a child's early adoption, substitution, or aban- 

 donment by its true parents. 



What Audubon said publicly or privately about his birth, 

 his age, and his parents forms a mystifying record. According 

 to Vincent Nolte, Audubon, after parrying some prying ques- 



* For translation of texts of the acts of adoption and baptisms, see Vol. 

 I, pp. 59-61. 



6 For power of attorney, see Vol. I, p. 64, note, and for wills, Vol. I, 

 p. 262, and Vol. II, pp. 360-368- 



