28 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Pierre Audubon was engaged by the French Gov- 

 ernment to transport the necessities of war to Cape 

 Breton Island in 1757, when the world- wide struggle 

 between France and Great Britain for supremacy in the 

 New World was at hand. The French were deter- 

 mined at all hazards to hold their great fortress of 

 Louisburg, which had been taken by the English but 

 again restored to the French not many years before. 

 This was the strongest and most costly fortress on the 

 American continent, as well as a great center for the 

 valuable trade in salted fish. By a coincidence, or pos- 

 sibly out of compliment to his wife, Pierre's ship bore 

 the name of La Marianne, and when he sailed from his 

 home port of Les Sables d'Olonne on April 15, 1757, 

 he took with him his own son, Jean, as cabin-boy, when 

 the lad was but thirteen years old. In the following 

 May Great Britain threw down the gauntlet to France, 

 and the terrific seven years' struggle began. The great 

 fortress of Louisburg fell in the following year to the 

 English fleet, and was left a heap of ruins. His father's 

 ship, the Mary Ann, was involved, and young Jean 

 Audubon, who thus began his fighting career at four- 

 teen, was wounded in the left leg and made a prisoner. 

 With many of his compatriots he was taken to England, 

 landing on November 14, 1758, where he remained in 

 captivity for five years ; he was released but a short time 



Vaugeon, a lawyer at Nantes; their only son, Louis Lejeune de Vaugeon, 

 was living at Nantes as late as 1822, when he deeded his former home to 

 Henri Boutard. (The substance of this and the preceding paragraph 

 is based partly upon data furnished by Miss Maria R. Audubon.) 



Jean Audubon gave his daughter, Rosa, the name of her aunt, but 

 in later life seems to have broken off all relations with his brothers. 

 Upon his death his will was immediately attacked by Mme. Lejeune de 

 Vaugeon, of Nantes, and by the three nieces from Bayonne (see Chapter 

 XVII). The naturalist does not give the name of the aunt who, as he 

 said, was killed during the Revolution at Nantes, but I have found no 

 reference to any other. 



