2 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 

 speaks of himself as being nearly sev- 

 enteen when his mother had him con- 

 firmed in the Catholic Church, and this 

 was about the time that his father, then 

 an officer in the French navy, was sent 

 to England to effect a change of prison- 

 ers, which time is given as 1801. 



The two race strains that mingle in 

 him probably account for this illogical 

 habit of mind, as well as for his roman- 

 tic and artistic temper and tastes. 



His father was a sea-faring man and 

 a Frenchman j his mother was a Spanish 

 Creole of Louisiana the old chivalrous 

 Castilian blood modified by new world 

 conditions. The father, through com- 

 mercial channels, accumulated a large 

 property in the island of St. Domingo. 

 In the course of his trading he made 

 frequent journeys to Louisiana, then the 

 property of the French government. 

 On one of these trips, probably, he mar- 

 ried one of the native women, who is 

 said to have possessed both wealth and 



