BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 67 
ers” having been “killed in the wars.” He then believed, 
as he said, that his first journey to France was made 
when he was two years old. 
The later and fuller biography, referred to above as 
written in 1835 and published in 1893, begins with these 
words :*" 
The precise period of my birth is yet an enigma to me, 
and I can only say what I have often heard my father repeat 
to me on this subject, which is as follows: It seems that my 
father had large properties in Santo Domingo, and was in the 
habit of visiting frequently that portion of our Southern States 
called, and known by the name of, Louisiana, then owned by 
the French Government. 
During one of these excursions he married a lady of Spanish 
extraction, whom I have been led to understand was as beauti- 
ful as she was wealthy, and otherwise attractive, and who bore 
my father three sons and a daughter,—I being the youngest of 
the sons and the only one who survived extreme youth. My 
mother, soon after my birth, accompanied my father to the 
estate [sic] of Aux Cayes,** on the island of Santo Domingo, 
and she was one of the victims during the ever-to-be-lamented 
period of the negro insurrection of that island. 
My father, through the intervention of some faithful ser- 
vants, escaped from Aux Cayes with a good portion of his 
plate and money, and with me and these humble friends reached 
New Orleans in safety. From this place he took me to France, 
where having married the only mother I have ever known, he 
left me under her charge and returned to the United States in 
the employ of the French Government, acting as an officer 
under Admiral Rochambeau. Shortly afterward, however, he 
22 Whether Jean Audubon had other sons born in Santo Domingo is 
not recorded, and this reference of the naturalist, which was repeated in 
his later sketch, cannot be verified. 
See Maria R. Audubon, Audubon and His Journals (Bibl. No. 86), 
vol. i, p. 7. 
22 See Note 2, Vol. I, p. 38. 
