CHAPTER IV 
AUDUBON’S BIRTH, NATIONALITY, AND PARENTAGE 
Les Cayes—Audubon’s French creole mother—His early names—Discovery 
of the Sanson bill with the only record of his birth—Medical practice 
of an early day—Birth of Muguet, Audubon’s sister—Fougére and 
Muguet taken to France—Audubon’s adoption and baptism—His as- 
sumed name—Dual personality in legal documents—Source of pub- 
lished errors—Autobiographic records—Rise of enigma and tradition— 
The Marigny myth. 
Santo Domingo, though repeatedly ravaged by the 
indiscriminate hand of man, is a noble and productive 
land, which, for the diversity and grandeur of its scenery 
and the rare beauty of its tropical vegetation, was justly 
regarded as one of the garden spots of the West Indies 
and worthy to be in truth a “Paradise of the New 
World.” For every lover of birds and nature this semi- 
tropical island, and especially Les Cayes, upon its south- 
westerly verge in what is now Haiti, will have a pe- 
culiar interest when it is known that there, amid the 
splendor of sea and sun and the ever-glorious flowers 
and birds, the eyes of America’s great woodsman and 
pioneer ornithologist first saw the light of day. 
Jean Audubon met somewhere in America, and 
probably at Les Cayes, a woman whom he has described 
only as a “creole of Santo Domingo,” that is, one born 
on the island and of French parentage, and who is now 
known only by the name of Mlle. Rabin.!. To them was 
*This was one of the commonest names among the French creoles of 
Santo Domingo, and was possibly assumed, though the evidence is in- 
conclusive. See Vol. I, p. 61. 
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