VIGNAUD, ven-yof, Jeim Henry, Ameri can diplomatist and author: b. New Orleans, La., 27 Nov. 1830. He taught in the schools of his native city in 1852-56, and at the same time wrote for Le Courrier and other papers. In 14357-60 he was editor of L'Union de Lafourche at Thibodeaux, La., and in 1860-61 was one of the founders and the editor of La Renaissance Louisianaist, a weelcly journal. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army as captain in a Louisiana regiment and was captured at New Orleans in 1862. The next year ne was ap pointed secretary of the C,onfederate Diplo matic Commission at Paris; in 1872 he wa.s translatot at the Alabama Claims Commission at Geneva; and in 1873 a delegate from the United States to the International Metric C,on ference. He was appointed second secretary of the American legation at Paris in 1875, and first secretary in 1882, retaining this position when the legation became an embassy. He has
written L'An th ropologie ) (1861) ; (Critical and Bibliographical Notices of All Voyage.s which Preceded and Prepared the Discovery of the Route to India by Diaz, and to America by Columbus' ; (Toscanelli and Columbus — the Letter and Chart of Toscanelli on the Route to the Indies by way of the West) (1902) ; (Toscanelli and Columbus — Letters to Sir Clements R. Markham and C. Raymond Beaz ley) (1903). The publication of his (Toscanelli and Coltunbus) provoked considerable contro versy; its aim was to impugn the purely scientific origir: of Columbus' discovery. In Paris he continued to write, bringing out sev eral books in French, his last contribution to the Columbus controversy being 'Histoire Critique de la Grande Enterprise de Chris tophe Columb) (Paris 1911).