It was with the purpose of correcting the false impressions created by animadversions in Buchanan's _Life_ that Mrs. Audubon, with the aid of her friend, James Grant Wilson, revised this work and published it in America under her name as editor, in 1869. The changes then made in Buchanan's text, however, were of a minor character and most of its errors remained uncorrected. The naturalist's granddaughter, Miss Maria R. Audubon, was inspired in part by similar feelings in preparing, with the aid of Dr. Elliott Coues, her larger and excellent work in two volumes, entitled _Audubon and His Journals_, which appeared in 1898. To her all admirers of Audubon owe a debt of gratitude for giving to the world for the first time a large part of his extant journals, as well as many new facts bearing upon his life and character. Other briefer biographies of Audubon which have appeared have been taken so completely from the preceding works, and have repeated and extended their errors to such an extent, as to call for little or no comment either here or in the pages which follow. Through the discovery in France of new documentary evidence in surprising abundance we are obliged to draw conclusions contrary to those which have hitherto been accepted, and the new light thus obtained enables us to form a more accurate and just judgment of Audubon the man, and of his work. CHAPTER II JEAN AUDUBON AND HIS FAMILY Extraordinary career of the naturalist's father—Wounded at fourteen and prisoner of war for five years in England—Service in the French merchant marine and navy—Voyages to Newfoundland and Santo Domingo—His marriage in France—His sea fights, capture and imprisonment in New York—His command at the Battle of Yorktown—Service in America and encounters with British privateers. Few names of purely Gallic origin are today better known in America, or touch a more sympathetic chord of human interest, than that of Audubon, and few, we might also add, are so rare. John James Audubon first made his family name known to all the world, and though he left numerous descendants, it has become well nigh extinct in America, and is far from common in France. The great Paris directory frequently contains no entry under this head; Nantes knows his name no longer, and it is rare in the marshes of La Vendée, where at some remote period it may have originated.