The Audubon Magazine. 



Vol. I. 



FEBRUARY, 1887. 



No. I. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



JOHN JAMES AUDUBON was born 

 on his father's plantation near New 



Orleans, Louisiana, May 4, 1780. His 

 father was a Frenchman, and the naturalist 

 himself spent a considerable part of his 

 early life in France. What he knew of his 

 ancestry he tells us in the following lan- 

 guage : "John Audubon, my grandfather, 

 was born at the small village of Sable 

 d'Olonne, in La Vendee, with a small har- 

 bor, forty-five miles south from Nantes. 

 He was a poor fisherman with a numerous 

 family, twenty-one of whom grew to ma- 

 turity. There was but one boy besides my 

 father, he being the twentieth born, and the 

 only one of the numerous family who lived 

 to a considerable age." 



The father of the naturalist was sent out 

 into the world to seek his fortune at the 

 age of twelve years. Shipping at Nantes 

 as a "boy" on a fishing vessel bound to 

 America, at the age of twenty-one he was 

 in command of a vessel, and at twenty-five 

 not only captain but owner of his craft. 

 His voyages were successful, and he at 

 length found himself at St. Domingo, where 

 he purchased a plantation. Here he ac- 

 cumulated a fortune, and was later sent to 

 France by the Governor of St. Domingo in 

 an official capacity during the days of the 

 First Empire. His acquaintance with 

 prominent men of the time soon led to 

 his receiving an appointment to the com- 

 mand of a vessel of war in the Imperial 

 Navv.' 



Previous to this, and while residing in 

 the West Indies, he had made various pur- 

 chases of land in Virginia, Pennsylvania 

 and Louisiana, and had married Anne Moy- 

 nette, a Louisiana lady of Spanish extrac- 

 tion. A daughter and three sons were born 

 to him, the youngest of the latter being 

 John James. 



The first years of the boy's life were 

 spent in Louisiana, but later the family re- 

 moved to St. Domingo, where, in the rising 

 of the negroes, Madame Audubon was 

 killed. Soon after this Commodore Audu- 

 bon returned to France, where he married a 

 second time, and again sailed for America, 

 leaving John James in the charge of his 

 wife. She proved a loving and indulgent 

 guardian to the self-willed boy, who was 

 pretty much his own master until the re- 

 turn of his father to France. It was the 

 father's desire that the boy should become 

 either a sailor or an engineer, and as a 

 preparation for whichever profession should 

 be determined on for him, he received 

 especial instruction in mathematics, draw- 

 ing, geography, music and fencing. But 

 the boy cared only for an outdoor life 

 which brought him in contact with nature. 

 It was his delight even in his earliest years 

 to make long excursions alone into the 

 country, returning laden with the natural 

 objects which he met with in his walks. 

 Thus birds' nests and eggs, plants, insects 

 and stones became early his playthings. 

 He was certainly not an ardent student of 



