70 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



later day was welcomed in their home on the Hudson. 

 Dr. Bakewell's contribution was as follows: 24 



The uncertainty as to the place of Audubon's birth has been 

 put to rest by the testimony of an eye witness in the person 

 of old Mandeville Marigny now dead some years. His re- 

 peated statement to me was, that on his plantation at Mande- 

 ville, Louisiana, on Lake Ponchartrain, Audubon's mother was 

 his guest ; and while there gave birth to John James Audubon. 

 Marigny was present at the time, and from his own lips, I have, 

 as already said, repeatedly heard him assert the above fact. 

 He was ever proud to bear this testimony of his protection 

 given to Audubon's mother, and his ability to bear witness as 

 to the place of Audubon's birth, thus establishing the fact that 

 he was a Louisianian by birth. 



We do not doubt the candor and sincerity of the 

 excellent Dr. Bakewell, but are bound to say that the 

 incidents as related above betray a striking lapse of 

 memory and an even greater misunderstanding of re- 

 corded facts. Singularly a footnote to the paragraph 

 quoted shows that the Marigny to whom he refers was, 

 as must have been the case, Bernard Mandeville de Ma- 

 rigny, who was born in 1785, the same year as the nat- 

 uralist. Since both were in the cradle at the same time, 

 he is hardly available as a witness. Moreover, the official 

 records of the United States Government prove that 

 the estate called "Fontainebleau" was not in possession 

 of the Marigny family at the time of Audubon's birth. 

 The land in question was granted to a Creole named 

 Antonio Bonnabel, on January 25, 1799, by Manuel 

 Gayoso de Lemos, Governor-General of the Province of 

 Louisiana and West Florida. Bonnabel sold his tract 



24 Gordon Bakewell (Bibl. No. 90), ibid., p. SI. 



