lviii AUDUBON THE NATURALIST 



of his father in the merchant marine and navy of France, hav- 

 ing obtained access in wartime to the official records of the 

 navy department in Paris through the good offices of our 

 ambassador, the late Hon. Myron T. Herrick. Jean Audubon 

 held the rank of lieutenant from October 11, 1797, until his 

 retirement for disability on January 1, 1801. Perhaps Mrs. 

 Tyler followed the example of Miss Maria R. Audubon, who 

 was accustomed to give this exalted rank to her grandfather; 

 and perhaps Miss Audubon got it from a letter that Audubon 

 carried with him when leaving Edinburgh for London, written 

 by a Mr. Hay, and addressed March 15, 1827, to his brother, 

 Robert William Hay, Downing Street, West, in which this 

 statement occurs : "Mr. Audubon is a son of the late French 

 Admiral Audubon, but has himself lived from the cradle in the 

 United States, having been born in one of the French colonies." 

 Audubon certainly should have known his father's naval rank, 

 and also that he could not have lived from the cradle in the 

 United States, but the last statement is now believed to have 

 been true. 



Strong presumptive evidence had led me to conclude that 

 John James Audubon was the illegitimate son of Lieutenant 

 Jean Audubon and Mademoiselle Rabin, a French Creole of 

 Santo Domingo. "Rather than tolerate the suggestion of ille- 

 gitimacy in regard to their grandfather," says Mrs. Tyler, "the 

 old ladies decided to bear the rigors of publicity if needs be, 

 and to give to the world the information which would disprove 

 this biography. To that end they released me from the promise 

 to withhold publication of their 'secret,' and perhaps the world's 

 secret also." This family secret of Audubon's noble birth, 

 which is revealed in Mrs. Tyler's / Who Should Command All, 

 was imparted by the naturalist in extracts from his private 

 journals, sometimes sent in letters to his wife, and apparently 

 written for her benefit alone, with no thought of their publica- 

 tion. The significant passages were copied by his granddaugh- 

 ter, Miss Maria R. Audubon, into a little black note-book, 

 which I was permitted to see in 1914, but, out of respect to 



