CHAPTER IV 



AUDUBON'S BIRTH, NATIONALITY, AND PARENTAGE 



Les Cayes— Audubon's French Creole mother — His early names— Discovery 

 of the Sanson bill with the only record of his birth — Medical practice 

 of an early day — Birth of Muguet, Audubon's sister — Fougere and 

 Muguet taken to France — Audubon's adoption and baptism — His as- 

 sumed name — Dual personality in legal documents — Source of pub- 

 lished errors — Autobiographic records — Rise of enigma and tradition — 

 The Marigny myth. 



Santo Domingo, though repeatedly ravaged by the 

 indiscriminate hand of man, is a noble and productive 

 land, which, for the diversity and grandeur of its scenery 

 and the rare beauty of its tropical vegetation, was justly 

 regarded as one of the garden spots of the West Indies 

 and worthy to be in truth a "Paradise of the New 

 World." For every lover of birds and nature this semi- 

 tropical island, and especially Les Cayes, upon its south- 

 westerly verge in what is now Haiti, will have a pe- 

 culiar interest when it is known that there, amid the 

 splendor of sea and sun and the ever-glorious flowers 

 and birds, the eyes of America's great woodsman and 

 pioneer ornithologist first saw the light of day. 



Jean Audubon met somewhere in America, and 

 probably at Les Cayes, a woman whom he has described 

 only as a "creole of Santo Domingo," that is, one born 

 on the island and of French parentage, and who is now 

 known only by the name of Mile. Rabin. 1 To them was 



i From a land-owning family in the northern part of what is now the 

 Republic of Haiti. 



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