PURCHASE OP MILL GROVE. 3 



whose beauty and wealth may have made her equally attractive. 

 A family of three sons and one daughter blessed this union, and 

 the subject of this biographical sketch was the youngest of the 

 sons. Soon after his birth Madame Audubon accompanied her 

 husband to the estate of Aux Cayps in the island of St. Domingo, 

 and there miserably perished during the memorable rising of the 

 negro population. 



The black revolt so endangered the property of the foreigners 

 resident in St. Domingo, that the plate and money belonging to 

 the Audubon family had to be carried away to New Orleans by 

 the more faithful of their servants. Eeturning to France with 

 his family, the elder Audubon again married, left his young son, 

 the future naturalist, under charge of his second wife, and re- 

 turned to the United States, in the employment of the French 

 government, as an officer in the Imperial navy. While there he 

 became attached to the army under Lafayette. Moving hither 

 and thither under various changes, he seldom or never communi- 

 cated with his boy ; but meanwhile the property which remained 

 to him in St. Domingo was greatly augmenting in value. During 

 a visit paid to Pennsylvania, the restless Frenchman purchased 

 the farm of Mill Grove on the Perkiominy Creek,- near the 

 Schuylkil Falls. Finally, after a life of restless adventure, he 

 returned to France and filled a post in the Marine; and after 

 spending some portion of his years at Eochefort, retired to his 

 estate on the Loire. This estate was left by Commodore Audubon 

 to his son John James, who conveyed it to his sister without even 

 visiting the domain he so generously willed away. 



B 2 



