In reading the published accounts of Audubon's early life many have been puzzled by the absence of definite dates, as well as by the numerous contradictions in which they abound. It is needless to burden this narrative with a tedious reference to all these errors or to attempt to trace their origin, which no doubt had many sources, but since we have given the first true account of the naturalist's birth, we cannot pass these matters without a word of comment. The situation is somewhat involved, since we should possibly differentiate between what Audubon at different times believed to be true, and what he wished to make known to his family or to the public; possibly also we should discriminate between what he actually published over his own signature during his lifetime and the material which has appeared since his death, even though originally written by his own hand. The first definite date which Audubon ever gave concerning his own life was that of his marriage in 1808, when he was twenty-three years of age, and all that he ever published of a biographical nature is to be found in his _Ornithological Biography_.[52] In the introduction to this work he simply said that he had "received light and life in the New World," and further that he returned to America from France, whither he had gone to receive the rudiments of his education, at the age of seventeen. Since Audubon's first return to America was in the autumn of 1803, when he was actually about eighteen and one-half years old, this statement is not so wide of the mark as to imply that the date of his birth was not then well understood. Moreover, the record of his adoption, which was certified to at the time of his baptism in 1800, was carefully preserved among the family documents, and there is no reason to suppose that knowledge of his age was ever withheld from him. Nevertheless, Audubon was inclined to overestimate his years, a characteristic rare in these days; when at Oxford in 1828 he was asked for his autograph, and was begged to inscribe also the date of his birth; "that," he said in recording the incident, "I could not do, except approximately," and his hostess was greatly amused that he should not know. While going down the Ohio River in 1820, bound for New Orleans, Audubon took advantage of a rainy day to write in his journal something about himself that he thought his children at some future time might desire to know. This brief record may or may not have been at hand when in 1835 he wrote the more extended version that finally saw the light in 1893.[53] Since the manuscript of the later sketch was presumably in possession of Mrs. Audubon when the biography of her husband was prepared in New York about the year 1866, that account in its various versions has furnished biographers with practically all of the available material, not purely conjectural, concerning the naturalist's early life. Such additions as were made subsequently have proved to be very inaccurate.