68 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



landed in the United States and became attached to the army 

 under La Fayette. 



The true history of Jean Audubon's commercial, 

 naval, and civic career is given in the preceding and fol- 

 lowing chapters. 



The naturalist, in his letters and journals, made fre- 

 quent allusions to his age, but, as his granddaughter re- 

 marked, with one exception, no two agree; hence, his 

 granddaughter concluded that he might "have been born 

 anywhere from 1772 to 1783." In the face of such 

 uncertainty she adopted the traditional date of May 5, 

 1780, adding that the true one was no doubt earlier. 

 Audubon was thus five years younger than his biograph- 

 ers supposed, and twenty-one years were added to the 

 age of his father, who actually lived to be only seventy- 

 four years old, while his son died in his sixty-seventh 

 year. 



Wherever there is mystery there tradition is certain 

 to raise its head, and though the naturalist carried his 

 "enigma" to the grave, others, building upon his story, 

 have fixed upon the very house in Louisiana in which 

 he is said to have been born. Indeed, advocates of 

 more than one house in that state as the probable scene 

 of Audubon's nativity have arisen in recent times. We 

 are obliged, therefore, to examine somewhat farther the 

 now universally received but thoroughly erroneous idea 

 that John James Audubon was a native of Louisiana 

 at a time when that Commonwealth was part of a prov- 

 ince of France. 



Upholding a tradition of rather recent growth, Au- 

 dubon's granddaughter has expressed the belief that the 

 naturalist was born in a house belonging to the famous 

 Philippe de Marigny and known as "Fontainebleau." 



