Newspaper transcription of Tureaud's diary with manuscript annotations by Trist Wood

Accompanied by newspaper clippings from a 1911 issue of the New Orleans Picayune which partially transcribe Tureaud's manuscript and include reproductions of paintings of the Tureaud family, pasted into a scrapbook with manuscript annotations by reporter Trist Wood.

Manuscript memoir bound with string, in French, detailing Tureaud's employ as supercargo aboard the Alert, an American merchant vessel which departed Baltimore for the port of Vera Cruz in 1801 and his subsequent life in Louisiana. Narrative describes the Alert's interception and interrogation by a British privateer, the Spring Bird, and subsequent capture by a British ship, the Crescent. Tureaud was held on suspicion of smuggling goods for the benefit of France. Describes Tureaud's detention and examination in Port Royal by the English Admiralty Court; an accidental shooting, an outbreak of yellow fever, several encounters with other English vessels, and an attempted mutiny by the crew following the resumption of the Alert's voyage to Vera Cruz; the ship's inhospitable reception by the Spanish governor of Vera Cruz; and Tureaud's eventual settlement in New Orleans and introduction into New Orleans society. Details the arrangement of his marriage to Elizabeth Bringier and several other romantic attachments.