Jean Audubon's voyages were all made in the interest of this valuable trade. Since they commonly lasted from six months to nearly a year, they became doubly hazardous to a French sailor after the outbreak of the American Revolution, for if he escaped his Scylla, the inveterate pirate, he might expect to encounter an equally formidable Charybdis in an English privateer. Though the northwestern corner of Santo Domingo was the center of their forays, Jean never lost a ship to the buccaneers, and though sometimes caught by the English, he never surrendered. He made three successive voyages from 1770 to 1772 in _La Dauphine_, commanded by Jean Pallueau, first as lieutenant and later as captain of the second grade, but on his last five voyages to the West Indies he captained his own ships, known as _Le Marquis de Lévy_ (1774), _Les Bons Amis_ (1775-6), and _Le Comte d'Artois_ (1777-8). Captain Audubon was married on August 24, 1772, at Paimbœuf, to Anne Moynet,[21] a widow of some property, who had been born at Nantes in 1735 and was thus nine years his senior. Her married name was Ricordel. She possessed several houses at Paimbœuf, and acquired one in 1777, which was rented to the Administration at the time of the Revolution (see Vol. I, p. 80), as well as a dwelling at Nantes, where she lived while her roving sailor of a husband was in Santo Domingo or the United States. Madame Audubon was a woman of simple tastes, devoted to culture, and, as we shall see, possessed of a kind heart. When Captain Audubon left Les Cayes, Santo Domingo, on his last trading voyage, in the spring of 1779, bound for Nantes with a valuable cargo, his ship, _Le Comte d'Artois_, was attacked by four British corsairs and two galleys. With the odds overwhelmingly against him, he fought until his crew were nearly all killed or disabled, and after an abortive attempt to blow up his vessel, tried to escape in his shallop. For the second time he was made a prisoner by the English, who in this instance took him to New York, then in the possession of British troops. He was landed in that city on May 12, 1779, and was held there as a prisoner of war for thirteen months. If our inference be correct, he finally owed his release to the efforts of the French Ambassador, Monsieur de la Luzerne, the same, we believe, who had been a Governor of Santo Domingo, and who in 1790 became its Minister of Marine. As will be seen presently, this diplomat again exerted himself in Captain Audubon's behalf.