An attempt has here been made to picture some of the scenes in the private life of the founder of Mobile, New Orleans. Natchez, and the explorer of the Mississippi Valley. His public career is almost the history of the country, and is found in Miss Grace Kings Life of Bienville; but the movement to erect a statue of him has brought the wish to picture the man himself. The facts now given are authentic. His letter and will are given Jodoin and Vincents Longueuil. I have transcripts of his dispatches, and much in the way of maps and otherwise is in my Colonial Mobile. If imagination has aided in the coloring, it is hoped that it is the historic imagination which restores rather than creates.