26 Biology in America 



life came to America, where he gained reputation as an or- 

 nithologist. 



The other of these two remarkable men, while an American 

 by birth, was French by parentage and education. Born in 

 Louisiana in 1780, his family shortly after removed to the 

 estate of Aux Cayes in St. Domingo, where his mother was 

 killed in the insurrection of the blacks in 1791, his father, with 

 the children, escaping to France, where he remarried, entrust- 

 ing the tutelage of his children to their step-mother. She 

 was an easy mistress and the young Audubon was reared in an 

 atmosphere of indulgent plenty. With more foresight than his 

 wife, the boy's father insisted on his education, originally 

 intending him for a maritime or engineering career. The fine 

 arts were not, however, neglected in his education, music and 

 drawing being included in his studies, the latter under the 

 famous French artist, David. His studies, however, did not 

 prevent many rambles into the country, from which he "re- 

 turned loaded with objects of natural history, birds' nests, 

 birds' eggs, specimens of moss, curious stones, and other ob- 

 jects attractive to his eye." Audubon also began in his early 

 boyhood to draw birds, completing sketches of two hundred 

 specimens. 



Finding his son's interest fixed upon other than maritime 

 or military pursuits, the father sent him to America to super- 

 intend his estate of Mill Grove on the Perkiomen Creek near 

 Philadelphia, where in Audubon 's own words, he found a 

 "blessed spot" and where "hunting, fishing and drawing oc- 

 cupied my every moment, cares I knew not and cared nothing 

 for them." Here, too, he met his future wife, Lucy Bake- 

 well, the daughter of an English gentleman, residing on an 

 adjoining estate. 



Before his marriage, Audubon returned for a year to 

 France, where he served for a brief time as a midshipman in 

 the French navy, and where he met a young man named 

 Rosier, who later became his partner in his business ventures 

 in America. 



Subsequent to Audubon 's return to America the future 

 partners essayed a business apprenticeship in New York, 

 which Audubon signalized by the loss of several hundred 

 pounds in speculation; Rosier similarly losing considerable 

 money. His commercial enterprises, however, did not pre^ 

 vent Audubon from devoting himself to his favorite pursuits, 

 which caused such a disagreeable odor in his rooms that hi' 

 neighbors demanded, through a constable, an abatement of 

 the nuisance ! 



Leaving New York, Audubon journeyed to Louisville, where 

 he invested the proceeds of the sale of the Mill Grove prop- 



