About two hundred years ago, there lived in France a poor fisherman named Audubon, who had nineteen daughters and two sons. One of the sons was sent away to make his fortune when he was twelve years of age. His entire patrimony was a shirt, a suit of clothes, a cane, and a blessing. For five years he was a sailor before the mast. Then he bought a boat. He prospered and bought other vessels. After many years he had large wealth, and was trading to the distant quarters of the earth.

When he was an old man he paid a visit to America. In two widely separated places, attracted by the country, he bought land. One estate was on Perkiomen Creek, near Philadelphia; the other was in Louisiana. In Louisiana he spent much of his time; and there, on May 4, 1780,1 his son, John James Audubon, was born.

(note) This date and place were generally accepted until 1917, when Francis Hobart Herrick published proof that Audubon was born in Santo Domingo in 1785.