The Eighteenth Centxiry 65 



to His Majesty King George III, edited by Reginald W. Jeffery. London, 

 1907. v.l, p. 87-89.) 



And in another letter on shipboard, Audubon refers to crossing "the Hne" 

 for the second time, and the memories it awakened of his "high birth." ( p. 50 ) 

 By further deduction, it would appear that one of the destinations of these 

 two Audubon travelers was Jean Audubon's mysterious estate on the He à 

 Vaches, off Saint Domingue, on which trip John James Audubon "crossed the 

 line" for the first time. If this be true, it would identify John James Audubon's 

 later and enigmatic reference to his crossing the line for the second time and 

 the memories it evoked of his first crossing, of his youth, and of his high birth, 

 (p. 65) 



The unpublished letters of John James Audubon follow, in one of which 

 he writes: 



June 4, 1826, At Sea 



We are a few miles south of the line for the second time in my life. 



What ideas it conveys to me of my high birth and the expectations 



of my younger days. (p. 67) 



(Alice Jaynes Tyler. I who should command all. New York: G. P. Put- 

 nam's Sons, cop. 1937, 1942. passim. ) 



Reprinted with permission. 



The book sets out to prove that Audubon was really the Dauphin of France, the son of Louis 

 XVI and Marie Antoinette, who, the author writes, was said by the French Government to have 

 died in the Temple on June 8, 1794. The writer notes that "This unpubhshed Audubon material 

 came to me from Maria Audubon. When Maria Audubon was working on her monumental 

 compilation of her grandfather's journals, she copied into a little black notebook certain tran- 

 scripts, which, in her opinion threw light on her grandfather's identity. This little black notebook 

 she wrüled to my husband and me." (p. 15. ) 



What happened to the original manuscripts, where these transcripts are to be found now 

 seems to get no mention. 



