30 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



lieutenant of his vessel, but in the summer of 1768 he 

 shipped again from Les Sables as sailor before the mast 

 for a short trading cruise on the coast of France; in 

 this instance the vessel, called Le Propre, was captained 

 by Pierre Martin, who was possibly an uncle. At this 

 juncture Jean Audubon enlisted in the French navy 

 (service for the State) as a common sailor, and made 

 two voyages on governmental business from the port of 

 Rochefort, serving altogether nearly nine months 

 (1768-9). After the termination of this last engage- 

 ment nothing is heard of Jean for over a year, when 

 in 1770 he makes his first appearance at Nantes, the 

 city that was to know him in many capacities for nearly 

 half a century. There he reentered the merchant ma- 

 rine, and on November 1, 1770, began a series of eight 

 voyages, lasting as many years, to the island of Santo 

 Domingo, the western section of which was then in pos- 

 session of France. 



Since much of the mystery which hitherto has 

 shrouded the early life of John James Audubon is in- 

 volved in the West Indian period of his father's career, 

 we shall now trace this history in considerable detail. 



The great export trade of French Santo Domingo 

 in those days was in brown and white sugar, then known 

 as the "Muscovado" and "clayed" sorts, which for the 

 year 1789 amounted to over 141,000,000 pounds, valued 

 at more than 122,000,000 francs; and in coffee, which 

 in the same year totaled nearly 77,000,000 pounds, esti- 

 mated to be worth nearly 52,000,000 francs. 6 While all 



6 In 1789 over 7,000,000 pounds of cotton and 758,628 pounds of 

 indigo were exported from the French side of the island, while further 

 products of that year, including smaller amounts of cocoa, molasses, rum, 

 hides, dye-woods, and tortoise shell, swelled the grand total of exports to 

 205,000,000 livres or francs. Bryan Edwards, however, whose deductions 

 were based on official returns, placed the average value of all exports 

 from French Santo Domingo for the years 1787, 1788, and 1789, at 



