PREFACE 



IX 



prove this or that statement ; and from the mass of papers 

 I have accumulated, I have used perhaps one fifth. 



" The Life of Audubon the Naturalist, edited by Mr. 

 Robert Buchanan from material supplied by his widow," 

 covers, or is supposed to cover, the same ground I have 

 gone over. That the same journals were used is obvious ; 

 and besides these, others, destroyed by fire in Shelbyville, 

 Ky., were at my grandmother's command, and more than 

 all, her own recollections and voluminous diaries. Her 

 manuscript, which I never saw, was sent to the English 

 publishers, and was not returned to the author by them or 

 by Mr. Buchanan. How much of it was valuable, it is 

 impossible to say; but the fact remains that Mr. Bu- 

 chanan's book is so mixed up, so interspersed with anec- 

 dotes and episodes, and so interlarded with derogatory 

 remarks of his own, as to be practically useless to the 

 world, and very unpleasant to the Audubon family. More- 

 over, with few exceptions everything about birds has been 

 left out. Many errors in dates and names are apparent, 

 especially the date of the Missouri River journey, which is 

 ten years later than he states. However, if Mr. Buchanan 

 had done his work better, there would have been no need 

 for mine ; so I forgive him, even though he dwells at un- 

 necessary length on Audubon's vanity and selfishness, of 

 which I find no traces. 



In these journals, nine in all, and in the hundred or so 

 of letters, written under many skies, and in many condi- 

 tions of life, by a man whose education was wholly French, 

 one of the journals dating as far back as 1822, and some of 

 the letters even earlier, — there is not one sentence, one 

 expression, that is other than that of a refined and cul- 



