LIEUT. AUDUBON, REVOLUTIONIST 81 



could hardly have been agreeable if, as seems to have 

 been the case, some of his own people were loyal to the 

 old regime. Correspondence by sea between Les Sables 

 and Nantes, which was open before the siege, was not 

 broken at this time, for the royalists had named one of 

 their representatives, Benoit, as a delegate "to fraternize 

 with the citizens of Nantes, to invite the authorities to 

 correspond, and beg them to send food if they had more 

 than they required." Four of Jean's letters, dated at 

 Les Sables on the fifth and eighth of July and the sixth 

 of August, besides one from La Rochelle on the four- 

 teenth of July, all addressed to the Administration of 

 the Loire Inferieure, have been preserved. 



In the manuscript records of the Department for 

 1793 is found also a notice of Jean's appointment as Spe- 

 cial Commissioner, with a memorandum of all the money 

 paid to reimburse him for the expenses of his numerous 

 journeys. Thus, it is noted that he had been paid 145 

 francs for a service of twenty-nine days, which would 

 represent the modest allowance of a dollar a day. An- 

 other item shows that he had received 100 francs for a 

 tour of ten days; a note which was added to this item 

 to explain the Directory's sanction for the payment of 

 another forty-five francs and ten sous reads as follows: 

 "by its order of the sixth of March last, the Council had, 

 in effect, named Citizen Audubon as its Commissioner, 

 to visit the coasts and to secure signatures, with full 

 power to treat with all people, to acquire materials 

 for the navy and other objects of his mission; if this 

 mission did not prove successful, it was solely through 

 force of circumstances, and not from any lack of zeal 

 on his part." 8 



8 Dclibfrratiom-Arretes de Directoire du Departement. In MSS. pp. 



107-108. 



