82 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



On the twenty-fifth of June, 1793, while engaged in 

 duties to which we have just referred, Jean Audubon 

 was appointed, with rank of ensign, to command the 

 Republican lugger named the Cerberus? During this 

 charge, which lasted until the twenty-second of Novem- 

 ber of the following year, he fought one of the stiffest 

 engagements of his career. On the twelfth of July he 

 encountered the Brilliant, an English privateer of four- 

 teen cannon which had captured an American ship laden 

 with flour ; and after a desperate battle which lasted three 

 hours, in the course of which Jean was wounded in the 

 left thigh, the Englishman, beaten and obliged to sur- 

 render his prize, was glad to escape under cover of night. 

 Jean towed the American into the port of La Rochelle, 

 and afterwards sent to the Administration a full account 

 of the engagement. 10 Ensign Audubon's next command 

 was a dispatch boat called L'Eveitte ("The Awak- 

 ened"), on which he served for nearly nine months, from 

 November 23, 1794, to August 14, 1795. He was then 

 detailed for port duty at La Rochelle from August 15, 

 1795, to January 24, 1797. His last ship was L'lnsti- 

 tuteur ("The Institutor" ) , which he commanded with 

 the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau, January 25 to 

 October 3, 1797, while he was engaged in govern- 

 mental business between the ports of La Ro- 

 chelle and Brest. 



The financial losses which Lieutenant Audubon sus- 

 tained at Les Cayes in consequence of the revolution 

 in Santo Domingo were a crushing blow to him ; he never 

 recovered his fortune, later estimated by his son-in-law 



9 Jean was actually in command of this war vessel in March of that 

 year, as shown by a document given in full in Chapter IV (p. 59). 



10 These records are on file in the archives of the Department of 

 Marine at Paris, but access to them will doubtless be denied until peace 

 is restored in Europe. 



