Life of Audubon 



CHAPTER I. 



Aiiduhofi's Ancestry — His Childhood — First Visit to America — 

 The Bakewell Family — Aspirations — YotithfiU Rccollectiojts — 

 A Marvellous Escape. 



HE name of Audubon is of French origin ; it is 

 extremely rare, and while confined in America 

 to the family of the naturalist, has in France been 

 traced only among his ancestry. Audubon has told us 

 all that he knew of his relations. He writes : " John 

 Audubon my grandfather was born at the small village 

 of Sable d'Olonne, in La Vendue, with a small harbor, 

 forty-five miles south from Nantes. He was a poor fisher- 

 man with a numerous family, twenty-one of whom grew to 

 maturity. There was but one boy besides my father, he 

 being the twentieth born, and the only one of the numer- 

 ous family who lived to a considerable age. In subse- 

 quent years, when I visited Sable d'Olonne, the old 

 inhabitants told me that they had seen the whole of this 

 family, including both parents, at church several times on 

 Sunday." 



The father of the naturalist appears to have caught at 

 an early age the restless spirit of his times, and his father, 

 who saw in it the only hope the youth had of obtaining 

 distinction, encouraged his love of adventure. He him- 

 self says of his start in life : " When I was twelve years of 

 age my father provided me with a shirt, a dress of warm 

 clothing, his blessing, and a cane, and sent me out to seek 

 my fortune." 



