70 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
later day was welcomed in their home on the Hudson. 
Dr. Bakewell’s contribution was as follows: ** 
The uncertainty as to the place of Audubon’s birth has been 
put to rest by the testimony of an eye witness in the person 
of old Mandeville Marigny now dead some years. His re- 
peated statement to me was, that on his plantation at Mande- 
ville, Louisiana, on Lake Ponchartrain, Audubon’s mother was 
his guest; and while there gave birth to John James Audubon. 
Marigny was present at the time, and from his own lips, I have, 
as already said, repeatedly heard him assert the above fact. 
He was ever proud to bear this testimony of his protection 
given to Audubon’s mother, and his ability to bear witness as 
to the place of Audubon’s birth, thus establishing the fact that 
he was a Louisianian by birth. 
We do not doubt the candor and sincerity of the 
excellent Dr. Bakewell, but are bound to say that the 
incidents as related above betray a striking lapse of 
memory and an even greater misunderstanding of re- 
corded facts. Singularly a footnote to the paragraph 
quoted shows that the Marigny to whom he refers was, 
as must have been the case, Bernard Mandeville de Ma- 
rigny, who was born in 1785, the same year as the nat- 
uralist. Since both were in the cradle at the same time, 
he is hardly available as a witness. Moreover, the official 
records of the United States Government prove that 
the estate called “Fontainebleau” was not in possession 
of the Marigny family at the time of Audubon’s birth. 
The land in question was granted to a creole named 
Antonio Bonnabel, on January 25, 1799, by Manuel 
Goyon de Lemore, Governor-General of the Province of 
Louisiana and West Florida. Bonnabel sold his tract 
*Gordon Bakewell (Bibl. No. 90), ibid., p. 31. 
