In the first of these sketches, which, so far as it goes, is more in strict accord with facts, Audubon said nothing of his birth, and of his mother remarked only that he had been told that she was "an extraordinary beautiful woman," who died shortly after he was born. His father, he added, saw his wealth torn from him, until there was left barely enough to educate his two children, all that remained of the five, his three elder brothers[54] 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:[55] 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 beautiful 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,[56] 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 servants, 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 landed in the United States and became attached to the army under La Fayette. The true history of Jean Audubon's commercial, naval, and civic career is given in the preceding and following chapters.