lvi AUDUBON THE NATURALIST 



Whatever convictions historians may have reached upon 

 this issue to-day, the questions respecting Audubon can re- 

 ceive but one answer — a decisive negative. I repeat them only 

 because they have been seriously asked and, incredible as it 

 may seem, have been given a warm welcome by two recent 

 biographers. 1 



Miss Rourke mentions a number of reasons which have led 

 her to favor the fantastic Dauphin idea. The fact that Au- 

 dubon was first called "Fougere," and later "Jean Rabin," 

 while for a time he used the name "Laforest" is cited with 

 suspicion. When Captain Jean Audubon finally returned from 

 Santo Domingo to France, late in 1789, "how many children," 

 she asks, "did he bring with him" ; and, "if he was accompanied 

 by a little boy, there is no certainty," she says, "that this was 

 the same boy who was adopted as Fougere, three years later." 

 If this were not the same boy, neither she nor Mrs. Tyler knows 

 what became of the first or has any proof that Audubon was 

 a substitute child. There was a long period, says Miss Rourke, 

 between Audubon's birth (April 26, 1785) and his adoption 

 (March 7, 1794) of nearly nine years, and "this gap has never 

 been filled in. Where was this boy during this time? It is 

 well within the range of possibility that after his return to 

 France during the Revolution, a boy was entrusted to the 

 care of Captain Audubon whose identity he was induced to 

 hide. He may have used the approximate birthday and later 

 the name of the little boy born in Santo Domingo to cover the 

 history of another child. Some of those closest to Audubon 

 during his lifetime believed implicitly that he was of noble 

 birth." 



Miss Maria R. Audubon, the naturalist's granddaughter, 

 stated to me in 1914 that Jean Audubon and his wife settled 

 some property upon "Jean Rabin, creole de Saint-Domingue," 

 which he refused to accept under that name, saying, "My own 

 name I have never been permitted even to speak ; accord me 



1 See Audubon, by Constance Rourke (New York, 1936), and / Who 

 Should Command All, by Alice Jaynes Tyler (New Haven, 1937). 



