38 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
of this grave decision could have reached the colony. 
At this time Jean Audubon was no doubt regarded 
as a very rich man, and though he happened to leave 
Les Cayes at a critical moment, little could he have 
dreamed of the disaster that awaited him there as well 
as in his beloved France. His personal affairs during 
this eventful period, involving as they necessarily do 
the early life of his distinguished son, have hitherto been 
shrouded in the dark and sinister history of that ever 
smiling but ever turbulent island. Now, however, the 
veil of mist that has settled over the page can be pene- 
trated at the most important points. In this and sub- 
sequent chapters we shall follow the life of father and 
son through the course of events which has been thus 
briefly summarized, 
To return to the earlier threads of our narrative, 
at about the close of 1783 Captain Audubon was en- 
gaged by the Coirond brothers, colonial merchants at 
Nantes, to take charge of their foreign trade, which 
centered chiefly at Les Cayes,* Santo Domingo, then a 
most thriving and populous town, as it is today the 
largest seaport on the southern coast of the Republic 
of Haiti. Their ships brought sugar, coffee, cotton and 
other West Indian products to France, and laden with 
* The proper name of this seaport town, as given by all French cartog- 
raphers and writers, is Les Cayes, meaning “the cays” or “keys” (small 
islands, Spanish cajos); omitting the article it is often simply written 
“Cayes.” French residents on the island, however, when dating or ad- 
dressing a letter or receipting a bill would naturally write “aux Cayes,” 
meaning of course “at The Cays,” where the document was signed or where 
the person to whom the letter was addressed resided (see the Sanson bill, 
and bills of sale of negroes, Appendix I, Documents Nos. 1, 4, 5, and 6). 
It was thus an easy step for Englishmen, in ignorance or disregard of 
the French usage, to call the town “Aux Cayes”; even as early as 1797, 
Bryan Edwards, though giving the name correctly on his map, which doubt- 
less had a French source, wrote “Aux Cayes” in his text; the corruption 
has survived, and is occasionally found in standard works, but is too 
egregious to be tolerated. 
